2000 – Kenya Airways Flight 431, an Airbus A310 (5Y-BEN) departing Abidjan, Ivory Coast, crashes just after takeoff following the flight crew’s failure to properly respond to a false stall warning. The aircraft crashed into the water, where 10 of the 179 aboard were pulled from the ocean alive.
“Friendship One” 747SP (N454UA) has seen “fresher” days. Captured here sitting at ACY in 2005, this was also once N538PA while operating under Pan Am. (Photo by Tom Turner)
1988 – “Friendship One”, a Boeing 747SP (N147UA) owned by United Airlines, completes a flight around the world in the record time of 36 hours, 54 minutes. The record would hold for less than a month, when a Gulfstream IV pulled it off 46 minutes faster.
1979 – A Varig Boeing 707 Freighter (PP-VLU) carrying valuable paintings mysteriously disappears over the Pacific Ocean. No wreckage or bodies were ever found. The flight was flown by the same Captain who crashed Varig Flight 820 in July of 1973.
1974 – Pan Am Flight 806, a Boeing 707-321B (N454PA) crashes on approach to Pago Pago International Airport in American Samoa. The crash was attributed to the flight crew not realizing their excessive descent rate in time to correct for it, ultimately killing 97 of the 101 aboard.
1957 – The Sikorsky HSS-1 S-58 helicopter, developed for anti-submarine operations, makes its first flight.
1948 – A British South American Airways Avro Tudor IV, Star Tiger, disappears without a trace en route from the Azores to Bermuda with 31 on board. The loss of the aircraft along with that of BSAA Avro Tudor Star Ariel in 1949 remain unsolved to this day, with the resulting speculation helping to develop the Bermuda Triangle legend.
1948 – Orville Wright, one of the two Wright Brothers that were the first in powered flight, dies at the age of 76.
1943 – The Royal Air Force de Havilland Mosquito made its first flight.
1942 – Arrow Airways and Canadian Airways merged to form Canadian Pacific Airlines. This airline would later be sold to Pacific Western Airlines in 1987, renaming the paired company Canadian Airlines International. This operation would later be absorbed by Air Canada in 2000.
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