1992: TWA Flight 843, a Lockheed L-1011 Tristar (N11002) departing New York’s JFK Airport (JFK) for San Francisco (SFO), aborts takeoff shortly after liftoff, skids off the end of Runway 13R and burns. Despite the fire and only three available exits, all 280 passengers and 12 crew manage to escape with their lives. The NTSB would conclude pilot error was to blame for the accident, but witnesses say the plane was on fire before it lifted off. (Read the NTSB report.)
1971: All Nippon Airways Flight 58, a 727-200 (JA8329) collides with a Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-86F fighter jet (92-7932) 26,000 feet above Shizukuishi, Japan, killing all 162 on board the airliner. The fighter pilot ejected and survived. At the time it was the deadliest air disaster in history.
1914: Norwegian pilot Tryggve Gran makes the first crossing of the North Sea by airplane, flying his Bleriot from Cruden Bay, Scotland to Revtangen, Norway. Unfortunately for Mr. Gran, Europe was focused on the conflagration which would become World War I, which had begun brewing a month earlier with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, and Gran’s feat received little attention.
