On This Day in Aviation History

August 5, 2012
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First American DC-10 Flight, Reagan Fires FAA Controllers: August 5 in Aviation History

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By: Matt Molnar
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An American Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-10 on final approach to Boston Logan Airport. (Photo by Michael Philip Manheim/NARA)
An American Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-10 on final approach to Boston Logan Airport. (Photo by Michael Philip Manheim/NARA)
1989: Piedmont Airlines is formally absorbed by USAir.

1984: An Aeroflot Antonov AN-12 loses all four engines after flying into heavy hail and crashes in Pakistan, killing all 23 aboard.

1981: President Reagan fires the remaining 11,359 striking air traffic controllers who had walked out two days earlier.

1973: Arab terrorists open fire inside and toss grenades inside a terminal at Athens Airport, killing three and injuring 55. The attack was intended for passengers traveling to Israel, but the Tel Aviv flight had already departed—most of the victims were waiting for a flight to New York. The attackers are captured and later executed.

1971: The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 enters commercial service with American Airlines with a flight from Los Angeles to Chicago. American commercials pitch the plane as being “as comfortable as a 747 but able to land at almost any commercial airport.”

1969: Space probe Mariner 7 makes its closest approach to Mars, beaming back photos and data from just around 10,000 miles above the Martian surface.

1964, The first U.S. air operations of the Vietnam War are launched from the carriers Ticonderoga and Constellation during Operation Pierce Arrow.

1930: Neil Armstrong, NASA astronaut and first human to set foot on the moon, is born in Wapakoneta, Ohio.