Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/June 27

June 27

• 2009 – Kingfisher Airlines Flight 3334, an Airbus A320, registration VT-ADR, collides with a building at Bagdogra Airport, India. The aircraft was substantially damaged.

• 2008 – A C-130 Hercules is damaged beyond repair in an emergency landing northeast of Baghdad International Airport. All 38 on board were transported to nearby Sather Air Base for medical evaluation. The aircraft was significantly damaged in the landing, and was deemed a write-off and destroyed.

• 2007 – The pilot of a twin engine, nine-seat Golden Wings Charter aircraft walked away from a low impact crash at the Airport Industrial Park. According to authorities whose emergency systems sprang into high gear once the alert was received.

• 2005 – An AH-64D Apache from 3–3rd Aviation Regiment is shot down by a shoulder-fired missile near Mishahda, killing the two pilots.

• 1996 – An Air National Guard General Dynamics F-16C Fighting Falcon makes a dead-stick landing at Elizabeth City Air Station following an engine failure. Capt Chris H. Rose of 121st Fighter Squadron was returning from a training mission when his engine suffered a flameout at 13,000 feet, but he was able to jettison his fuel tanks and glide for 15 miles to a successful landing with the assistance of his three wingmen and air traffic controllers. For his outstanding airmanship he was awarded the Koren Kolligian Jr Trophy.

• 1995 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-71 at 19:32:19 UTC. Mission highlights: Spacelab mission.

• 1987 – Philippine Airlines Flight 206, a Hawker Siddeley HS 748, crashes on the slopes of Mount Ugo, Benguet, as it begins its approach to Loakan Airport in Baguio City; all 50 passengers and crew are killed. Poor visibility is blamed for the crash.

• 1985 – An RAF Lockheed C-130K Hercules C.1P, XV206, of 1312 Flight, and a Royal Navy Westland Sea King HAS5, XZ919, helicopter of 826 Naval Air Squadron, collide in cloud north of the Falkland Islands, at around 300 ft. The Hercules lost the wing beyond its #1 (port outer) engine but still managed to land. The Sea King, based at RNAS Culdrose, was lost and all four on board killed.

• 1983 – Ballooning pioneer Maxie Anderson and his co-pilot Don Ida die in a balloon accident near Bad Brückenau, West Germany, during the 1983 Gordon Bennett Cup balloon race.

• 1982 – Launch: Space shuttle Columbia STS-4 at 15:00:00 UTC. Mission highlights: Last shuttle R&D flight, first DoD payload.

• 1980 – Itavia Flight 870, a Douglas DC-9, crashes into the sea near the island of Ustica, Italy, in unclear circumstances, killing all 81 people on board.

• 1979 – Israeli Air Force F-15 Eagles shoot down four Syrian Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21s

• 1977 – First flight of the CASA C-101

• 1976 – Air France Flight 139, an Airbus A300, is hijacked from Athens by two Palestinians and two Germans who divert the flight to Libya and then to Uganda, where the plane is met by pro-Palestinian forces from Idi Amin's government; Israeli troops eventually storm the airport in Operation Entebbe, killing hijackers and Ugandan soldiers and freeing all but three of the hostages; Israeli colonel Yonatan Netanyahu, brother of Benjamin Netanyahu, is also killed in the raid.

• 1970 – Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Cessna L-19 Bird Dog of No.4 Army Aviation Squadron, Dhamial Air Base, piloted by Major Tahir Mahmood Jilani, with Observer Captain Noor Mohammed, went missing, while on search and recovery mission to locate a drowned military officer Captain Bahadur's body, over the mighty river Indus near Kalabagh-Khushal Garh area. No debris or bodies were located, in the very extensive ground and aerial search that followed, however.

• 1969 – First flight of the Interceptor 400

• 1965 – The Vietnam War’s largest airmobile operation thus far takes place as 150 helicopters airlift the U. S. Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade and two South Vietnamese Army airborne battalions to attack a Viet Cong stronghold just north of Bien Hoa, South Vietnam.

• 1960 – A Boeing KC-97G-27-BO Stratotanker, 52-2728, of the 380th Air Refueling Squadron, Plattsburgh AFB, New York, suffers failure of lubrication on an engine impeller shaft, during an evening four-hour training mission to refuel a Boeing B-47 Stratojet. During rendezvous at 15,500 feet, bomber crew sees the tanker's number one (port outer) engine burst into flames, burning fuel threatening the wing integrity. As the bomber moves away from the burning tanker, the crew tries unsuccessfully to put out the blaze. The plane goes into a spin as the wing fails outboard of the engine and crashes on Jonathan Smith Mountain, a hill east of Puzzle Mountain in Newry, Maine. The flash of the fire is seen from as far away as Lewiston and Bridgton, and several people witness the crash, including hundreds of movie-goers at the Rumford Point Drive-In. All five crew are killed - two are found wearing unused parachutes. KWF are Lt. William Burgess, commander, of Indian Lake, New York; Technical Sgt. Robert Costello, boom operator, of Springfield, Illinois; Lt. Raymond Kisonas, navigator, of Waterbury, Connecticut; Lt. Lewis Turner, co-pilot, of Spokane, Washington; and Master Sgt. Harold Young, flight engineer, of Selma, Alabama. Wreckage covers five acres and is still there.

• 1958 – A USAF Boeing KC-135A-BN Stratotanker, 56-3599, c/n 17348 Crashed on takeoff from Westover AFB, Chicopee, MA attempting to set a world speed record from New York-London. 7 crew and 8 passenger fatalities.

• 1950 – A USAF F-82 Twin Mustang shoots down a North Korean Air Force Yak-9, the first air-to-air kill of the Korean War.

• 1950 – USAF B-29 Superfortresses of the 19th Bombardment Group attack Seoul railway station and the bridge over the Han River in the first strategic bombing mission of the war.

• 1950 – First flight of the FMA IAe 33 Pulqui II

• 1950 – U. S. Air Force C-47 Skytrains and C-54 Skymasters evacuate U. S. nationals from Korea.

• 1950 – Japan-based PBM-5 Mariners of Patrol Squadron 47 (VP-47) begin the first U. S. Navy maritime air patrols of the Korean War.

• 1935 – United States Coast Guard Lieutenant Richard L. Burke sets a world seaplane altitude record of 5,449.050 m (17,877.46 ft) carrying a 500-kg (1,102-lb) load, flying a Grumman JF-2 Duck.

• 1930 – Canadian Airways Ltd., formerly Western Canada Airways, was incorporated.

• 1923 – Capt L H Smith and Lt J P Richter, made the first in-flight aerial refueling by the United States Army Air Service de Havilland DH-4 B over Rockwell Field, San Diego. They also set a distance record of 3,293 miles covered in the flight.

• 1916 – Fokker's chief designer and test pilot Martin Kreutzer takes a Fokker D.I for test flight, but when he kicks rudder hard over, it jams and he is severely injured in subsequent crash, dying in hospital the next day.

• 1914 – Lincoln Beachey completes the first loop-the-loop and inverted flying in Canada during an exhibition at Maisonneuve Park in Montreal.

• 1912 – Following successes using aircraft against the Turks in North Africa, Italy forms a specialised Air Battalion (Battagliore Aviatori).

• 1909 – Three New York Papers (the Sun, Times and Herald) carry the world's first advertisement of a practical airplane for sale to the general public.