Long March 3 rocket going off-course on launch, to kill an untold amount of locals upon crash landing moments later.
2008 – Belavia Flight 1834, a Bombardier CRJ-100ER (EW-101PJ), crashes on takeoff in Yerevan, Armenia. The left winghad accumulated frost on the wing due to difference in temperature between the air and fuel inside the wing’s tanks, resulting in immediately stall as the aircraft became airborne. All 21 on-board survived, mostly as a result of the 50-second response time of the rescue team.
2007 – JetBlue announces their codeshare agreement with Cape Air, connecting Boston passengers with Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.
1996 – China launches a Long March 3 rocket, carrying the Intelsat 708 satellite. The rocket flies off course 3 seconds after liftoff and crashes into a rural village due to an engineering defect. The number of fatalities is unconfirmed.
1990 – Indian Airlines Flight 605 crashes on final approach into Bangalore Airport, killing 92 of 146 people on-board. The crash of the Airbus A320 (VT-EPN) blamed on the flight crew’s late response to a high descent rate, where they fell 2,300ft short of runway 9 while at idle power.
1989 – The first of 24 Global Positioning System satellites is placed into orbit.
1980 – Japan Air Lines begins commercial operations with the highest-capacity airliner ever put into scheduled service, conducting the inaugural flight of eight Boeing 747SR (Short Range) aircraft. The aircraft has seating for 550 passengers, 45 in the upper deck.
1963 – The Indian Air Force receives its first batch of Soviet fighters, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21s.
1946 – Philippine Airlines resumes service after a 5-year hiatus during World War II.
1932 – Ruth Nichols flies her Lockheed Vega from Floyd Bennett Field, New York to an altitude of 19,928 feet, a new world record for diesel-engined airplanes.
1914 – The American nonstop duration and distance record is made when Lt. Townsend Dodd and Sgt. Herbert Marcus fly the U.S. Signal Corps Burgess H tractor biplane, going 244 miles in 4 hours 43 minutes.
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