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On This Day: 1996

Aviation events for 1996

January 4: First flight of the RAH-66 Comanche. Read more...
 
January 8: A Moscow Airways Antonov AN-32B (registered RA-26222) being operated by Air Africa, crashes at N’Dolo Airport in Kinshasa, DR Congo. The aircraft had difficulty building airspeed and went off the end of the runway and into a street market, where about 350 people were killed.
 
January 11: Space Shuttle STS 72 (Endeavour 10), launches into space.
 
February 6: Birgenair Flight 301, a Boeing 757-225 (TC-GEN) crashes into the Caribbean Sea, killing all 189 aboard. The crash is due to one of the aircraft’s 3 pitot tubes having been blocked, giving the aircraft erroneous airspeeds. Blame has been placed on the pilots because they proceeded to takeoff even after realizing the airspeed issues on departure.
 
February 9: Adolf “Dolfo” Galland passes away. He was a German Luftwaffe General and flying ace who served throughout World War II in Europe. He flew 705 combat missions, and fought on the Western and the Defence of the Reich fronts. On four occasions he survived being shot down, and he was credited with 104 aerial victories, all of them against the Western Allies.
 
February 14: China launches a Long March 3 rocket, carrying the Intelsat 708 satellite. The rocket flies off course 3 seconds after liftoff and crashes into a rural village due to an engineering defect. The number of fatalities is unconfirmed.
 
February 17: NEAR - USA Asteroid Orbiter launched. The main scientific purpose of NEAR (Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous) is to orbit near Earth asteroid 433 Eros. The spacecraft is scheduled to study the asteroid for one year after entering orbit in February 1999. NEAR imaged Comet Hyakutake in March 1996 and will fly within 1,200 kilometers of asteroid 253 Mathilde on June 27, 1997. This is the first of NASA's Discovery missions.
 
February 21: Soyuz TM-23, launched into orbit.
 
February 22: STS 75 (Columbia 19), launches into orbit.
 
February 29: WestJet, a Canadian airline, began operations.
 
February 29: First flight of the Cessna Citation Excel.
 
March 1: NEAR, USA Asteroid Orbiter (Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous) imaged Comet Hyakutake.
 
March 2: NEAR, USA Asteroid Orbiter (Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous) imaged Comet Hyakutake.
 
March 7: 1st surface photos of Pluto by Hubble Space Telescope.
 
March 8: Cebu pacific Airlines commences flight operations.
 
March 12: Florida West International Airways restarts operations.
 
March 15: Aircraft manufacturer Fokker shuts down after 84 years in business.
 
March 21: Tupolev and NASA begin joint research into civil supersonic transports using a refurbished Tupolev Tu-144.
 
March 21: NEAR, USA Asteroid Orbiter (Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous) imaged Comet Hyakutake.
 
March 22: STS-76 (Atlantis 16), launches into orbit.
 
March 26: Pace Airlines is founded after approval from the FAA and the US Dept. of Transportation. Their operation would last until they suspend operations on September 11, 2009.
 
March 31: Space Shuttle STS-76 (Atlantis 16), lands.
 
April 3: A US Air Force CT-43A crashes into a hill on approach to Dubrovnik Airport in Croatia, killing US Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown and all 29 other passengers and five crew on board. The military variant of the Boeing 737-200 had descended below the minimum approach altitude for the area, blamed on the crew being unfamiliar with the airport’s IFR NDB approach.
 
April 4: First flight of the Extra 400.
 
April 5: First flight of the Lockheed C-130J.
 
May 11: ValueJet 592, a DC-9-30 crashes in the Everglades after departing MIA due to a fire caused by the activation of improperly stored oxygen generators. All 110 passengers and crew perished.
 
May 31: Space Shuttle STS-76 (Atlantis 16), lands.
 
July 6: Delta Airlines Flt. 1288, An uncontained engine failure of the port (left) engine on the aircraft which resulted in a fan hub piercing the cabin. The flight was scheduled to fly to Atlanta. Two passengers were killed.
 
July 17: TWA flight 800, a Boeing 747-100 (N93119) enroute to Paris, explodes and plummets into the Atlantic off the coast of Long Island shortly after takeoff from JFK Airport. The explosion is blamed on faulty wiring in the center fuel tank.
 
August 6: First flight of the Kawasaki OH-1. Read more...
 
August 29: Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801, a Tupolev Tu-154M (reg RA-85621) operating a charter flight from Moscow to Svalbard, Norway, crashes into a mountain after the crew botches the approach to Svalbard, killing all 141 on board. It is the deadliest crash ever to occur in Norway.
 
September 1: Rich International Airways ceases operations. Read more...
 
September 26: Shannon Lucid sets the U.S. record for a continuous stay in space and begins more than a two-year continuous U.S. presence in space.
 
September 30: First flight of the Aero L-59 Super Albatross.
 
October 2: Aeroperu Flight 603, a 757-200 (registered N52AW), crashes into the Pacific Ocean killing all 70 on board. The aircraft had been giving erratic and erroneous aircraft speed and altitude information during the night flight, and not knowing their true altitude, the crew clipped the water and crashed after a struggle to recover. The crash was attributed to tape left over a static port after aircraft cleaning.
 
October 22: Million Air Flight 406, a Boeing 707-323C with 4 people aboard, crashes into a Dolorosa neighborhood ripping off rooftops and crashing in flames into a restaurant, killing the 4 aboard, 30 in the neighborhood and injuring 50 Ecuador.
 
October 31: Air Tahiti Nui formed.
 
November 12: The Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision, between Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight 763 (a 747-100 registered HZ-AIH) and Kazakhstan Airlines Flight 1907 (an IL-76 registered UN-76435), kills a total of 349 people, making it the deadliest mid-air collision in aviation history. The Kazakh aircraft was cleared to descend to 15,000ft, but leveled off at 14,500ft instead, into the path of the departing Saudi airliner. The IL-76’s tail sliced off the 747’s wing, making the Boeing spiral towards the ground, reaching 705mph at impact. The IL-76 remained somewhat stable but still crashed in a field, with 4 passengers surviving for a short while before succumbing to their injuries.
 
November 23: Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 crashes in Comoros after it got hijacked on air, killing 125 people.
 
November 29: First flight of the Tupolev TU-144LL.
 
December 15: The merger of McDonnell Douglas and Boeing is announced.
 
 
 

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