This Day in Aviation History, April 27: Happy Birthday A380!

On This Day in Aviation History: April 27th

2005 - Happy birthday, Whalejet! The Airbus A380 (F-WWOW) makes her maiden test flight from Toulouse, France (TLS).

2002 - Final successful telemetry is received from the Pioneer 10 space probe, floating nearly 7.5 billion miles from earth. After its launch in 1972, Pioneer 10 became the first probe to travel through the asteroid belt and the first to make direct observations of Jupiter.

1980 - Thai Airways Flight 231, a Hawker Siddeley HS-748 (HS-THB), crashes after experiencing windshear on approach to Don Muang Airport (DMK) in Bangkok, killing 40 of the 53 people on board.

1977 - An Aviateca Convair 240 (TG-ACA) crashes soon after takeoff from La Aurora International Airport (GUA) in Guatemala City, killing all 28 on board. The crash investigation reveals that an oil line was improperly reconnected during maintenance the day before, causing the number one engine to fail.

1976 - American Airlines Flight 625, a Boeing 727 (N1963) goes off the end of the runway while attempting to land at Harry S. Truman Airport on St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands (STT) killing 37 of the 88 people on board. The crew of the flight, which originated in Providence, Rhode Island (PVD) with a stop in New York (JFK) attempted a go around after touching down more than half the distance down the short 4,658 foot runway. When the captain felt no acceleration after pushing the throttles, he panicked and applied full brakes, without pushing the nose down nor applying reverse thrust. The aircraft went off the end with a nose up attitude of 9 degrees, at a speed of 132 knots, and hit a Shell gas station.

1974 - Engine number four of an Aeroflot Ilyushin IL-18 (SSSR-75559) suffers an uncontained failure, bringing down the plane near Leningrad and killing all 118 people on board.