On This Day in Aviation History

2012-02-21

February 21st in Aviation History: Libyan Airliner Shot Down, Photos of 757 Gushing Fuel

2010 – A Thomas Cook Airlines Boeing 757 begins gushing fuel out of its right wing after takeoff from Turin, Italy. (See photos.)

2008 – Santa Barbara Airlines Flight 518 crashes into the side of a mountain just after takeoff on a flight from Merida, Venezuela to Caracas. The ATR-42’s navigational equipment was failing when the aircraft crashed, killing all 46 aboard.

2008 – Continental adds 27 aircraft to its firm order positions at Boeing, including eight new 777s and 19 new 737NGs.

2007 – Adam Air Flight 172, a Boeing 737-300 (PK-KKV), experiences a hard landing that results in a bent and cracked fuselage in Surabaya, Indonesia. This led to the grounding of all Adam Air 737s, especially after the fatal crash of Flight 574 the previous month. All aboard survived with minor injuries.

1984 – Racing driver Henri Pescarolo and Air France pilot Patrick Fourticq land their Piper Malibu in Paris after a flight from New York, setting a speed record of 14 hours 2 minutes for a single-engined aircraft across the North Atlantic.

Thomas Cook 757 fuel leak

A Thomas Cook 757 springs a fuel leak. (Click for more photos) (Photo by Paolo Migliavacca)

1979 – Former astronaut Neil Armstrong climbs to 50,000 feet over Kitty Hawk, NC in just over 12 minutes with a Gates Learjet Longhorn 28, breaking five world records for business jets.

1973 – Libyan Airlines Flight 114 is shot down over the Sinai Peninsula by an Israeli Air Force F-4 Phantom IIs after an airspace violation. The Boeing 727-224 (5A-DAH) became lost and ended up in the area that was occupied by Israeli during the Six-Day War. The intention of the 20mm cannon fire was to cripple the aircraft, and the emergency landing resulted in the deaths of 108 of the 113 on-board.

1971 – All Nippon Airways operates their first international flight, a 727 charter from Tokyo to Hong Kong.

1970 – Swissair Flight 330, a Convair CV-990 Coronado (HB-ICD) crashes when a bomb explodes nine minutes after departure from Zurich. The attempt to return the damaged aircraft to the airfield fails, and all 47 on-board are killed when the plane crashes into a wooded area.

1964 – A Philippine Airlines Douglas DC-3 crashes on approach to Marawi City. The accident is blamed on pilot error.

1951 – An English Electric Canberra becomes the first jet to make a crossing of the Atlantic without refueling, taking 4 hours 37 minutes.



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