This Day in US Military History

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20 November

1820 – ESSEX was an American whaler from Nantucket, Massachusetts. The ship, captained by George Pollard, was widely known for being attacked and sunk by a sperm whale in the Pacific Ocean on this date. The incident served as inspiration for Herman Melville's 1851 novel, Moby-Dick.
After the ESSEX was sunk, 3 boats (aka Chase boat, aka Hendrick boat and aka Pollard boat) reached Henderson Island on December 20th. Having largely exhausted the island's resources, they concluded that they would starve if they remained much longer. On Christmas 26th, the crew sailed for Easter Island, save 3, who remained on land. The Chase boat, with only 3 survivors left, was rescued by the British whaleship INDIAN, on February 18th. Hendricks's boat, last seen on January 28th with only 3 surviving crew, was never seen again. Pollard's boat, with only 2 survivors, was rescued by whaleship DAUPHIN, on February 23rd. All men resorted to cannibalism in order to survive. On Pollard's boat, his 17-year old cousin, still alive, was lotted to be sacrificed for the others to survive. In total, the corpses of seven fellow sailors had been consumed.

1862 - EMMA TUTTLE was a schooner that was burned by wooden screw steamer USS MOUNT VERNON, 7 miles southeast of Fort Fisher, North Carolina. She was carrying a cargo of rosin.

1862 - PEARL was a schooner that was en route from Wilmington to Nassau, Bahamas with a cargo of turpentine, rosin, and shingles that was captured by gunboat USS CHOCURA at latitude 33°38'N 78°19'W, some 19 miles off present day Ocean Isle Beach, NC on November 19th, 1862. She was abandoned the next day due to taking on water. Wooden screw steamer USS MOUNT VERNON later found the floating PEARL, tried to tow her, but she capsized and sank.

1931 – Former USS O-12 (SS-73) was towed three miles down the Byfjorden (a Norwegian fjord just outside Bergen) and scuttled in 1,138 feet (347 m) of water. In 1981 Norwegian divers found her wreck. Another source sets the date as 30 November.

1940 - Prototype North American NA-73X Mustang, NX19998, c/n 73-3097, first flown 26 October 1940 by test pilot Vance Breese, crashes this date, on its fifth flight. According to P-51 designer Edgar Schmued, the NA-73 was lost because test pilot Paul Balfour refused, before a high-speed test run, to go through the takeoff and flight test procedure with Schmued while the aircraft was on the ground, claiming "one airplane was like another." After making two high speed passes over Mines Field (now LAX), he forgot to put the fuel valve on "reserve" and during third pass ran out of fuel. Emergency landing in a freshly plowed field caused wheels to dig in, aircraft flipped over, airframe was not rebuilt, the second aircraft being used for subsequent testing.

1963 - Tenth Lockheed U-2A, Article 350, 56–6683, delivered to the CIA on 24 April 1956, converted to U-2F by spring 1963; loaned to SAC for Cuba overflight missions, crashes into the Gulf of Mexico 40 miles (64 km) NW of Key West, Florida, killing pilot Capt. Joe Hyde, Jr. Pilot was returning from a Brass Knob mission and was hand-flying the aircraft back to Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, at 69,000 feet (21,000 m) after failure of autopilot when it entered a flat spin and impacted in the Gulf. Wreckage retrieved from shallow water near Florida coast but ejection seat, seat pack and parachute missing – pilot never found.

2011 - Two people were taken to Pensacola Naval Hospital for evaluation after landing a USAF Beechcraft T-6 Texan II with the landing gear up. The names of the two crew members were not released after the 1300 hrs. incident, Pensacola Naval Air Station Public Affairs Officer Harry White said. Both people safely exited the plane, which landed at Forrest Sherman Field at the air station, White said. The aircraft and crew are assigned to the U.S. Air Force's 455th Flying Training Squadron at NAS Pensacola.

 

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21 November

1916 - SS Britannic was built for White Star Line’s trans-Atlantic service and was launched in February 1914. Before she was completed, she was taken over by the Admiralty for use as hospital ship HMHS Britannic and was never employed for her original purpose.

On November 21st, 1916, she was sailing to Salonika to take on board wounded when she struck a mine in the Zea Channel in the Aegean Sea. She sank in a very short time, taking with her 21 members of the crew and medical staff. At the time of the disaster she had on board 1,125 persons, of whom 625 were crew and 500 medical officers, nurses and Royal Army Medical Corps personnel. In addition to those drowned 28 were injured.

The mines had been laid in the channel only an hour previously by the U-73, Lt. Cdr. Siehs, who had brought his submarine from Cuxhaven to the Mediterranean.

1947 - "Williams Field, Ariz., Nov. 21. (AP) - Two Williams Field officers escaped death today when their planes collided 7000 feet above the ground about four miles northwest of the field. First Lt. Thomas P. Demos, 30, of Forest Park, Ill., bailed out of his AT-6 but was injured. He was taken to the field hospital for observation. First Lt. Jack C. Langston, 26, of Medford, Ore., flew his crippled P-51 Mustang back to the field and landed unhurt. Escape from a collision of this type is rare."

1947 - "SAN DIEGO, Calif., Nov. 21 (AP) - A navy Martin Mariner patrol bomber is overdue on a flight from Alameda, Calif. naval air station to San Diego, the 11th naval district reported today. The plane, due here at 2:45 p. m., was last heard from at 1:45 p. m. when it radioed the naval air station here and gave its position as 20 miles west of Bakersfield, Calif., the navy said. The number aboard the plane was not known. San Diego police, at the request of the navy, broadcast bulletin advising the state division of forestry border patrol and other police agencies to be on the lookout for the plane."

1947 - "SAN DIEGO, Calif., Nov. 22 (AP) - Identity of nine navy officers and enlisted men lost at sea yesterday (21 November) when their Lockheed Neptune patrol bomber crashed 100 miles west of San Diego during maneuvers with the first task fleet was announced today at 11th naval district headquarters."

1953 – Test pilot Chuck Yeager flew the X-1A to Mach 1.15 on his first familiarization flight.

 

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22 November

HAPPY THANKSGIVING


1864 - KATIE was a Union stern-wheel steamer of 180 tons, built in 1864 at Elizabeth, Pa. that collided with the DES MOINES at Diamond Island (TN, KY, NY?) and sank in nine minutes, with one killed.

1865 – MARY HILL was a side-wheel steamer of 234 tons that was armed with 1 x 24-pounder and 1 x 12-pounder and built in 1859 at Smithfield, Texas. She was used as a Confederate cottonclad gunboat, transport, and guard ship during the Civil War and was lost by snagging in the Trinity River, TX.

1917 - A Tellier T.3 seaplane piloted by U.S. Navy Ensign Kenneth R. Smith, with Electrician's Mate Wilkinson and Machinist's Mate Brady on board, was forced down at sea on a flight out of NAS LeCroisic, France, to investigate the reported presence of German submarines south of Belle Isle. Two days later, and only minutes before their damaged aircraft sank, they were rescued by a French destroyer. It was the first armed patrol by a U.S. Naval Aviator in European waters. Smith was Naval Aviator No. 87.

1944 - Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer, BuNo 59544, on pre-delivery test flight by company crew out of Lindbergh Field, San Diego, California, takes off at 1223 hrs., loses port outer wing on climb-out, crashes one quarter mile further on in ravine in undeveloped area of Loma Portal near the Navy Training Center, less than two miles (3 km) from point of lift-off. All crew killed, including pilot Marvin R. Weller, co-pilot Conrad C. Cappe, flight engineers Frank D. Sands and Clifford P. Bengston, radio operator Robert B. Skala, and Consolidated Vultee field operations employee Ray Estes. Wing panel comes down on home at 3121 Kingsley Street in Loma Portal.
Cause is found to be 98 missing bolts, the wing was only attached with four spar bolts. Four employees who either were responsible for installation, or who had been inspectors who signed off on the undone work, are fired two days later. San Diego coroner's jury finds Consolidated Vultee guilty of "gross negligence" by vote of 11–1 on 5 January 1945, Bureau of Aeronautics reduces contract by one at a cost to firm of $155,000. Consolidated Vultee pays out $130,484 to families of six dead crew.

1950 - First official test flight of the U.S. Navy Vought XSSM-N-8 Regulus I, FTV-1, (Flight Test Vehicle), '1', from Rogers Dry Lake, Edwards AFB, California, goes badly when, after reaching an altitude of several hundred feet after lift-off, the J33 jet-powered missile rolls violently right and crashes. Had it rolled to the left, it would likely have struck the USN Lockheed TV-2 Seastar chase plane piloted by Chuck Miller with Roy Pearson on board as missile controller. Cause is found to be a broken brass pin in the port elevator pump assembly that allowed the elevator to deploy, the pin having been worn out during months of ground test runs. Brass is subsequently replaced by steel pins, and problem is solved.

1952 - A United States Air Force Douglas C-124A Globemaster II, 51-0107, c/n 43441, on approach to Elmendorf AFB, Anchorage, Alaska, United States crashes into a remote glacier. The wreckage was found several days later on the South side of Mount Gannett. There were no survivors killing all 52 aboard. [41 Army and Air Force passengers and 11 crewmen.] This was the fourth worst accident involving a Douglas C-124. Debris from the crash was again found in June 2012.
1952 Mount Gannett C-124 crash - Wikipedia

1960 – Test pilot Scott Crossfield flew the X-15 to 18,867 meters (61,902 feet) and Mach 2.51.

1961 – Lt. Col. Robert B. Robinson, USMC, flew a YF4H-1 Phantom II, 1,606.342 MPH (about Mach 2.4 at altitude) at Edwards AFB, CA. setting a new world speed record for jet powered aircraft.

1963 - President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

1972 - The United States loses its first B-52 of the Vietnam War. The bomber was shot down by a SAM near Vinh.

1981 - United States Navy LTV A-7E-11-CV Corsair II, BuNo 158678, 'AJ-310', of VA-82 from the USS Nimitz (CVN-68) air wing and based at Cecil Field, Florida, crashed at 1200 hrs. ~120 miles NW of Sardinia. Aircraft was returning to the ship after routine mission.

1991 – Former USS Algol (LKA-54) was given to the state of New Jersey and sunk as an artificial reef some 19 miles off Spring Lake, NJ.

 

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23 November

1822 - The third USS ALLIGATOR was a schooner in the United States Navy. She was laid down on 26 June 1820 by the Boston Navy Yard; launched on 2 November 1820; and commissioned in March 1821—probably on the 26th—Lieutenant Robert F. Stockton in command. The ship departed Matanzas, Cuba escorting a convoy. Before dawn the following morning, she ran hard aground on Carysford Reef off the coast of Florida. After working desperately to refloat their ship, officers and crewmen gave up on a hopeless task. After removing all useful equipment, they set fire to ALLIGATOR and the young but battle-tested warship soon blew up. ALLIGATOR REEF and lighthouse honor the ship.

1862 - BROWN DICK was a Union stern-wheel steamer of 55 tons, built in 1855 at McKeesport, PA. She was burned at Wheeling, WV, while being dismantled. She floated downstream and her machinery was salvaged and used on the W. H. HARRISON.

1952 - A US Navy PB4Y-2S Privateer, of VP-28, was attacked, but not damaged, by a Chinese MiG-15 Fagot off of Shanghai, People's Republic of China.

1953 - USAF pilot 1st Lt. Felix Moncla and radar operator 2nd Lt. Robert L. Wilson take off in Northrop F-89C-40-NO Scorpion, 51-5853A, from Kinross Air Force Base, Kincheloe, Michigan, investigating an unusual target on radar operators. Wilson had problems tracking the object on the Scorpion's radar, so ground radar operators gave Moncla directions towards the object as he flew. Flying at some 500 miles per hour, Moncla eventually closed in on the object at about 8000 feet in altitude. Ground radar showed both the unidentified craft and the Scorpion suddenly disappearing from screen after intersecting. It is presumed the Scorpion crashed into Lake Superior, though no confirmed traces of the craft or Moncla and Wilson have been found.

1983 – Former USS Curb (ARS-21) was sunk as an artificial reef off Key West, Florida.

2004 – Former USS Schenectady (LST-1185) was used as a target and hit with seven 2,000 JADAM during exercise Resultant Fury at the Pacific Missile Range Facility, 60nm NW of Kauai, Hawaii.

2015 - US Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, 87-24651, c/n 701193, of the 291st Aviation Regiment, crashes at Fort Hood after the crew performed a turn that was too steep, killing all four on board.

2015 - US Army Boeing AH-64D Apache Longbow, 08-05562, crashes in Wonju County, Gangwon Province, South Korea, killing both pilots.

 

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24 November

1862 - USS ELLIS was a Union armed side-wheel steamer of 100 tons. Originally purchased in 1861 for the Confederacy, she was captured by the Union Navy in February 1862.
She ran aground at a location called the 'Rock', 40 miles southwest of Beaufort, NC and 5 miles north of the New Inlet River during an attack on Jacksonville. The next day, the crew saved one 12-pounder, small arms, ammunition and valuables in a captured schooner and blew up ELLIS. The Confederates later salvaged some ammunition, small arms and the other howitzer.

1864 - Schooner LOUISA was chased ashore by gunboat USS CHOCURA on a bar off the San Bernard River off the coast of Texas, where a heavy gale completely destroyed her before Union forces could board her.

1864 - Union steamer USS SHRAPNEL, on voyage to Norfolk, foundered in a canal in Virginia on her way to be repaired. Most probably lifted.

1877 - USS HURON, a 1020-ton Alert class screw steam gunboat built at Chester, Pennsylvania, was commissioned in November 1875. Until mid-1877, she cruised in the Caribbean area, calling on ports in Central America, northern South America and the West Indies. Following repairs at New York, HURON departed Hampton Roads, Virginia, on a voyage to collect scientific information in the area of Cuba. However, while en route she was wrecked in a storm near Nag´s Head, North Carolina. Nearly a hundred of her officers and men were lost.

1913 - Lts. Eric Lamar Ellington, chief instructor, and Hugh M. Kelly of the 1st Aero Squadron, United States Army Aviation Corps, are killed this date in a fall of about eighty feet in a Wright Model C, Signal Corps 14. The accident occurred at ~0758 hrs. across the bay from San Diego, California on the grounds of the army school on North Island. On impact, the engine broke free, crushing the two aviators. These were the eleventh and twelfth Army aviation casualties.
"The front page of the San Diego Union was devoted to the details of the Ellington/Kelly crash, under the headline 'Intrepid Navigators of Air Crushed, Mangled to Death in Fall of Government Biplane,' with charges that the aviators were 'slaughtered' by a parsimonious government using antiquated machines." Ellington Field, Texas, which opens on 1 November 1917, is named for Lt. Ellington.

1964 – Former USS SEA DEVIL (AGSS-400) was sunk by USS VOLADOR (SS-490) during a weapons test off Southern California with a MK-37-1 wire-guided torpedo.

1952 - The second Boeing EB-50A Superfortress, 46-003, which spends most of its operational career used for testing, first by Boeing, and later by the Air Research and Development Command, and Air Material Command, primarily at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, is involved in a fatal accident at Aberdeen, Maryland, this date. Four crew killed when it crashes in the Bush River near Edgewood, Maryland.

1953 - A USAF North American F-86D Sabre crashes near Marianna, Florida. The pilot ejects but is killed when his chute fails to deploy, his fighter coming down ~10 miles N of Graham Air Base. Col. Lewis H. Norley, commanding officer of the base, said that due to "unknown circumstances" the chute failed to function. Rescue planes from Maxwell Field at Montgomery, Alabama, and Tyndall Air Force Base, Panama City, Florida, discovered the pilot's body. Norley said that the pilot's identity will not be released until notification of the next of kin.

1956 - A Boeing B-47E-60-BW Stratojet, 51-5233, c/n 450518, of the 341st Bomb Wing, runs off runway upon landing at Dyess AFB, Texas, tearing away the port inboard engine nacelle. Aircraft may have been also attempting a go-around. All crew survives.

1972 - U.S. Air Force McDonnell RF-4C-24-MC Phantom II, 65-0825, c/n 1227, and McDonnell RF-4C-32-MC Phantom II, 66-0471, c/n 2651, of the 62d Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, 363d Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, Shaw AFB, South Carolina, suffer a mid-air collision over the Atlantic Ocean about 30 miles off of Pawley's Island at ~1450 hrs, during a defensive combat maneuvering mission. Two crew from 0471, Capt. B. W. Stechlein and Capt. R. L. Jaeger eject, and are recovered 27 miles out to sea by Bell UH-1N Huey, Save 53, of Detachment 8, 44th ARRSq, out of Myrtle Beach AFB, and taken to the base hospital, but two others aboard 0825, including one officer of HQ 9th Air Force, Shaw AFB, Lt. Col. Edward Cole, Jr., are lost. The second casualty was Maj. Edward W. Tate.

 

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25 November

1863 – NELLIE MOORE was a Union stern wheel paddle steamer of 226 tons built in 1863 at Cincinnati. She ran aground at Cumberland Island, Kentucky and was lost.

1864 - FRANCIS SKIDDY was a Union side-wheel steamer of 1183 tons, built in 1851 at New York City. She was wrecked on a ledge 4 miles south of Albany on the Hudson River, near Staats Landing (Staat's Dock). The engine was removed and put in the new steamer DEAN RICHMOND.

1924 - The incomplete USS WASHINGTON (BB-47) was towed some 60 miles off Virginia to be used as a gunnery target.
On the first day of testing, the ship was hit by two 400-pound torpedoes and three 1-ton near-miss bombs with minor damage and a list of three degrees. On that day, the ship had 400 pounds of TNT detonated onboard, but she remained afloat. Two days later, the ship was hit by fourteen 14 in shells dropped from 4,000 feet, but only one penetrated. The ship was finally sunk by USS TEXAS (BB-35) and USS NEW YORK (BB-34) with 14-in shells. After the test, it was decided that the existing deck armor on battleships was inadequate, and that future battleships should be fitted with triple bottoms.

 

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26 November

1861 - ARCADE was a Union schooner with a cargo of staves en route from Portland, Maine for Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadalupe to exchange for rum & sugar. She was captured and burned by steamer CSS SUMTER.

1863 - Confederate schooner MARY ANN, on voyage from Calcasieu Parish, LA. to Tampico, Mexico, with a cargo of cotton and leaking badly, was captured by gunboat USS ANTONA and destroyed after seizing her cargo.

1945 - "TACOMA, Wash., Nov. 26 (UP) - Coast Guard aircraft and small Navy boats tonight began a search of the ocean off Florence, Ore., for six crewmen who parachuted during a gale from a C-46 transport plane enroute from California to McChord field, Wash."

1958 – At Chennault AFB, near Lake Charles, Louisiana, a B-47 loaded with a sealed-pit nuclear weapon containing no plutonium and some tritium caught fire on the ground after the accidental discharge of assisted take-off (ATO) bottles during the pilot's acceptance check. Discharge of the JATO units propelled the aircraft off the runway, where it collided with a towing vehicle and caught fire. The nuclear weapon case and all other components, with the exception of a few small pieces of high explosives, were destroyed by the fire; however, even in spite of one minor explosion, the secondary remained intact and the tritium reservoir was recovered. Contamination was limited to the immediate vicinity of the weapon residue within the aircraft wreckage.

2004 - United States Marine Corps Bell-Boeing MV-22B Osprey, BuNo 165838, loses a 20 × 4 inch piece of a prop-rotor blade during test flight in Nova Scotia, Canada, but is able to make safe precautionary landing at CFB Shearwater despite severe airframe vibration. The blade failed after apparently being hit by ice which broke off from another part of the aircraft.

 

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27 November

1862 – LONE STAR was a Union steamer carrying a cargo of sugar and 2 passengers when she was captured by Confederates below Plaquemine, LA. They brought the vessel 10 miles down the Mississippi River to a bluff where it was burned.

1864 – USS GREYHOUND was a Union side-wheel steamer, built in 1863 in England and used during the civil war as Gen. Benjamin Butler's headquarters. GREYHOUND, while steaming 5 or 6 miles upstream the James River from Bermuda Hundred, VA., was blown up by a Confederate bomb disguised as a lump of coal (aka 'coal torpedo') in the coal bunkers. She was beached and there were no human casualties, but Butler lost his horses and GREYHOUND was totally destroyed.

1942 - Douglas O-46A, 35–179, of the 81st Air Base Squadron, piloted by Gordon H. Fleisch, lands downwind at Brooks Field, Harlingen, Texas, runs out of runway, overturns. Written off, it is abandoned in place. More than twenty years later it is discovered by the Antique Airplane Association with trees growing through its wings, and in 1967 it is rescued and hauled to Ottumwa, Iowa.
Restoration turns out to beyond the organization's capability, and in September 1970 it is traded to the National Museum of the United States Air Force for a flyable C-47. The (then) Air Force Museum has it restored at Purdue University and places it on display in 1974, the sole survivor of the 91 O-46s built.

1944 - During a 3,000-mile out-and-back navigation training mission from Great Bend Army Airfield, (now Great Bend Municipal Airport) Kansas, to Batista Army Airfield, (now San Antonio de los Baños Airfield) Cuba, Boeing B-29-25-BW Superfortress, 42-24447, coded '35', of the 28th Bombardment Squadron (Very Heavy), 19th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy), suffers fire in number 1 (port outer) engine. Aircraft commander, 1st Lt. Eugene Hammond, orders crew bail-out 37 miles S of Biloxi, Mississippi. After all but the pilot have departed, the burning engine nacelle drops off of the wing, Lt. Hammond returns to controls, brings the bomber into Keesler Field, Mississippi for emergency landing. Only four recovered from the Gulf of Mexico, one dead, three injured.

1945 - Douglas C-47B-1-DL Skytrain, 43-16261, c/n 20727, of Air Transport Command, piloted by 1st Lt. William H. Myers, disappears during flight from Singapore to Butterworth, British Malaya. Wreckage found on mountain slope in the forest reserve area of Bukit Bubu, near Beruas, Perak, Malaysia. Crew remains recovered in August 2015. Also killed were Flight Officer Judson Baskett and PFC Donald Jones.

1963 – Test pilot Milton Thompson flew the X-15 to 27,371 meters (89,804 feet) and Mach 4.94.

1964 - A Lockheed SP-2H Neptune, BuNo 135610, coded "YC 12", of VP-2, out of NAS Kodiak, crashes into a mountain near the tip of Cape Newenham, Alaska. Twelve crew members killed.

1987 – Former USCG Bibb (WPG-31) was sunk as an artificial reef just outside the coral reef tract, about six miles (10 km) southeast of Key Largo, FL.

1987 – Former USCG Duane (WPG-33) was sunk as an artificial reef located a mile south of Molasses Reef, FL., some 0.4 miles south southwest of the USCG Bibb wreck.

 

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28 November

1864 – Sloop-of-war CSS FLORIDA was allegedly sunk in an accidental ramming with US Army Transport ALLIANCE. In reality, she was scuttled off Thorofore Island, Newport News, VA.

1864 - CHARLIE POTWAN was a Union stern-wheel steamer of 52 tons, built at Zanesville, Ohio. En route from Coalport for Ashland, Ky., swells from the Diamond and Coal Hill caused the vessel to fill and turn over at Eight Mile Island above Point Pleasant, WV. The cabin separated from the hull and floated downstream. There was no loss of life. The vessel was carrying a cargo of slack coal.

1864 - DOANE (DOAN NO.2) was a Union stern wheel paddle steamer built in 1863 at Cincinnati. She ran aground and broke in two parts sinking in 6 feet of water about 20 miles above Dardanelle, AR. and 18 miles East of Clarksville, AR. Vessel’s cargo was saved.

1941 - First prototype Grumman XTBF-1 Avenger, BuNo 2539, suffers fire in bomb bay during test flight out of Long Island, New York factory airfield, forcing pilot Hobart Cook and engineer Gordon Israel to bail out. (Joe Mizrahi source cites date of accident as 28 August 1941.)

1947 - A USAF Douglas C-47B-6-DK, 43-48736, c/n 14552/25997, of the 15th Troop Carrier Squadron, 61st Troop Carrier Group, piloted by Wesley B. Fleming, en route from Pisa to Frankfurt-Rhein-Main AFB, thirty miles off-course, crashes in the Italian Alps near Trappa, Italy. All five crew and 15 passengers KWF. Futile search involving hundreds of aircraft from several countries is given up on 11 December. Wreckage discovered eight months later.

1953 - The first aircraft accident since arrival of the 463d Troop Carrier Wing at Ardmore Air Force Base, Oklahoma, occurred early Saturday morning, this date. Captain Francis N. Satterlee, Public Information Officer, and three passengers received various minor injuries as Beechcraft AT-11, 42-36830, went out of control as it became airborne, crashing 75 yards off the runway. "Captain Satterlee, pilot, was the most seriously injured of those aboard, receiving a compound fracture of the left leg below the knee plus lacerations of the right leg, right arm and face. The passengers included Lt. James R. Quiggle of the base legal department; A2/c Carl L. Taylor, crew chief of the aircraft, Headquarters Squadron, 463rd Air Base Group and Pvt. James R. Carver, U. S. Army, stationed at Ft. Lewis, Washington.
The aircraft was headed for Fort Sill, Lawton, Oklahoma. Pvt. Carver, on leave at Ardmore, his hometown, was hoping to catch a military aircraft flight from Lawton to McChord Air Force Base, a short distance north of Ft. Lewis. Lt. Quiggle, Airman Taylor and Pvt. Carver received minor injuries not requiring hospitalization and received first aid at the base hospital. It was not in full operation at the time and Satterlee, with serious injuries, was transported to the Ardmore Sanitarium and Hospital where he stayed until he returned to duty."

1957 - Lockheed U-2A, 56-6704, Article 371, eleventh airframe of first USAF order, delivered April 1957, moved to 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, Laughlin AFB, Texas, June 1957, crashes at night this date. Capt. Benny Lacombe killed when he unsuccessfully attempts to bail out of crippled aircraft 13 miles SE of Laughlin. Ejection seats had not yet been fitted to U-2s at this point.

 

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29 November

1944 - Douglas A-26 Invader, A-26B-10-DT 43-22298 and A-26B-15-DT 43-22336 both of 641st Squadron USAF collided during formation after take-off from Warton Aerodrome, Lancashire. All crew were killed. Both aircraft remained on Freckleton Marsh and were partially recovered as part of a UK Channel 4 Time Team Programme in 2005.

1952 - A Civil Air Transport C-47 flying from Seoul, South Korea, on a mission to pick up agent Li Chun-ying, was shot down in Jilin province, People's Republic of China. CAT pilots Robert Snoddy and Norman Schwartz were killed. CIA agents Richard Fectau and John Downey were captured and held in China until December 12, 1971 and March 12, 1973, respectively. In July 2002, the Chinese government allowed a US government team to search for Snoddy and Schwartz's bodies. This expedition brought back sufficient airplane remains to prompt a more in-depth archaeological dig in July 2004.

1966 – Test pilot Mike Adams flew the X-15 to 28,042 meters (92,005 feet) and Mach 4.65.

1982 - Shortly after completing a training mission, a USAF Boeing B-52G Stratofortress, 59-4766, suffered hydraulics fire in nose gear, exploded at the end of the runway at Castle AFB, California, but crew of nine escaped before it was fully engulfed. Aircraft commander ordered evacuation as soon as he learned of the wheel fire.

1984 – Former USCG George W. Campbell (WPG-32) was sunk as a target with a Harpoon missile some 52 miles NW of Kauai, Hawaii.

2004 - A U.S. Army Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawk, crashes shortly after taking off from Fort Hood, Texas, when it strikes guy-wires supporting the television antenna of KSWO-TV, near Waco, Texas, killing all seven soldiers aboard. Conditions were foggy and the warning lights on the tower were not lit, in violation of both Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) regulations. Victims included Brigadier General Charles B. Allen of Lawton, Oklahoma; Specialist Richard L. Brown of Stonewall, Louisiana; Chief Warrant Officer Todd T. Christmas of Wagon Mound, New Mexico; Chief Warrant Officer Doug Clapp of Greensboro, North Carolina; Chief Warrant Officer Mark W. Evans of Killeen, Texas; Chief Warrant Officer David H. Garner of Mason City, Iowa; and Colonel James M. Moore of Peabody, Massachusetts.

 

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30 November

1861 - NORMAN was a Union schooner that was lost on Block Island, R.I., while carrying coal.

1861 - Confederate schooner E. J. WATERMAN, while carrying a cargo of coffee, ran aground on Tybee Island, Georgia, and was captured by the sloop-of-war USS SAVANNAH.

1862 - The 136-ton Union bark PARKER COOK, while carrying a cargo of pork, beef, butter, cheese, and bread to Aux Cayes Haiti, was captured and burned off Cape Rafael, Santo Domingo, by the screw sloop-of-war CSS ALABAMA.

1931 – Former USS NAUTILUS, (ex-O-12 (SS-73)) was towed three miles down the Byfjorden (a Norwegian fjord just outside Bergen) and scuttled in 1,138 feet (347 m) of water. In 1981 Norwegian divers found her wreck. Another source sets the date as 20 November.

1944 - Two B-24 Liberator bombers, flying out of Davis-Monthan Army Air Base, collide at 0740 hrs. over the desert NE of Tucson, Arizona. The planes were on a training mission and all eighteen airmen died. The location of this crash was over a major natural drainage canal known as the Pantano Wash, at a point half-way between present day East Broadway and East Speedway. Aircraft involved were both B-24J-35-CO Liberators, 42-73344 and 42-73357, of the 233d Combat Crew Training Squadron. Harold D. Ballard piloted 344, while 357 was flown by Theodore V. Glock.

1947 - TOKYO, Dec. 1. (AP) - The wreckage of a plane believed to be an air transport command C-47 missing with two aboard since Sunday morning has been located 5000 feet up the snowclad slopes of Mount Fuji, the First cavalry division said today. The missing plane, carrying only a pilot and copilot, left Haneda airfield near Tokyo on a flight to Itami airbase near Osaka. The United States Far East air force said no radio contact was established with the plane after its takeoff."

1953 - A USAF C-119 Flying Boxcar crashes in flames while on approach to Orly Airport, Paris, France, killing all six crew. "French officials said the plane appeared to explode in air moments after it had been given a clearance for its approach to the field. They said [that] six bodies had been recovered from the wreckage. Air Force sources said the plane was manned by a ferry crew from Dover Field, Del. The bodies of five men were pulled from the charred wreckage. A sixth crewmen was found dead in a clump of trees after he had tried unsuccessfully to bail out from about 700 feet. His partially-opened parachute was tangled in branches 40 yards from the crash site."

1953 - USAF Lt. Ben E. Short, of Fontana, California, steps out of his burning North American F-86D-35-NA Sabre, 51-6172, and parachutes safely near Courtland, California, while on a flight out of Hamilton AFB, California. The burning plane lands in a field near Dixon, 20 miles from where the pilot descends. "Short, who was uninjured, telephoned his base from a farm house and was returned to Hamilton Field by helicopter an hour later." The accident occurred at 1000 hrs. A helicopter of the 41st Air Rescue Squadron flew him back to base. His F-86 crashed 35 miles E of Travis AFB.

1960 – In his first familiarization flight, test pilot Neil Armstrong flew the X-15 to 14,886 meters (48,840 feet) and Mach 1.75.

1964 – Test pilot John McKay flew the X-15 to 26,579 meters (87,206 feet) and Mach 4.66.

1967 – Former USS NEUENDORF (DE-200) was sunk as a target off California.

1989 - A Douglas A-4F Skyhawk—Bureau Number 152101, tail number '2101', c/n 13489, assigned to the US Navy Top Gun school, crashed short of the runway at NAS Miramar, north of San Diego, California. The cause of the crash was loss of power to the engine. The pilot, Lt. Cmdr. Stanley R. O'Connor, an instructor in the Top Gun school, ejected safely. This airframe had been ordered as the final A-4E but was delivered as the first A-4F model.

1991 - During routine training mission, pilot Lt. Michael Young, 28, bailed out of his disabled USAF LTV A-7D-9-CV Corsair II 70-1054 of the 180th Tactical Fighter Group, Ohio Air National Guard, based at Toledo Express Airport, Swanton, Ohio, over the coast of Michigan's Thumb area. He landed in Lake Huron and was dragged 12 miles in his parachute by winds before being lost and presumed drowned. The jet impacted in a wooded area near Port Hope, Michigan. Rescuers were unable to reach pilot at the speed he was being dragged, and survival was unlikely in the 38-degree water.

1992 - On 29 November 1992, four Lockheed C-141 Starlifters, of the 62d Airlift Wing, deployed from McChord AFB, Washington, to Malmstrom AFB, Montana, to take part in what was supposed to be a routine local air refueling/airdrop mission, with a KC-135 Stratotanker of the 141st Air Refueling Wing, Washington Air National Guard, out of Fairchild AFB, Washington. Two Starlifters collided over Harlem, in north central Montana, at 2020 hrs., this date, while involved in a refueling training exercise at between 24,000 and 27,000 feet, killing all 13 aboard the two jets, said Mike O'Connor of the Federal Aviation Administration. C-141Bs 65-0255 and 66-0142 came down a mile apart. Wreckage was scattered over 16 square miles 12 miles north of Harlem, a town of 1,100 near the Canada–US border. There were six people on one of the aircraft and seven on the other. Eleven of the men were from the 36th Airlift Squadron, one from the 8th Airlift Squadron, and one from the 4th Airlift Squadron. Neither aircraft was carrying any cargo on the training mission, indications they had finished part of the refueling and one of the aircraft was moving back into formation when the collision occurred.

1992 - Rockwell B-1B Lancer, 86-0106, "Lone Wolf", of 337th Bomb Squadron, 96th Bomb Wing, flies into a mountain, 300 feet below a 6,500-foot ridge line approximately 36 miles SSW of Van Horn, Texas, when the pilot interrupted the terrain-following radar. 4 fatalities. The Air Force attributed the crash to pilot error. Aircraft had collided with a KC-135R over Nebraska on 24 Mar 1992, but was repaired.

 

[mhansen2]

1 December

1863 - COLONNA was a Union stern-wheel steamer of 102 tons, built in 1859 at Brownsville, Pa. She was burned at Newburg, IN.

1863 - TECUMSEH was a Union side-wheel steamer of 418 tons, built in 1852 at Cincinnati that was lost at West Baton Rouge, LA.

1864 - NYMPH was a Union stern-wheel steamer of 35 tons, built in 1862 at Portsmouth, Ohio that was wrecked at Louisville, KY.

1952 - A USAF Douglas C-47B-50-DK Skytrain, 45-1124, crashes in the San Bernardino Mountains with 13 aboard "during a lashing storm while ferrying personnel from its home base, Offutt Air Force Base, Omaha, Nebraska to March Air Force Base near here." Search parties fly out of Norton Air Force Base, San Bernardino, California, and search snow-covered 8,000-foot (2,400 m) level near Big Bear Lake, where a sheriff's deputy reported seeing a fire on Monday night. The aircraft was last heard from at 2151 hrs. PST. Wreck found on 22 December at ~11,485-foot (3,501 m) level of Mount San Gorgonio, buried twelve feet in the snow. All 13 killed while flying (KWF). One source gives crash date as 28 November.

1953 - A Navy trainer and an Air Force Douglas C-54 Skymaster hospital plane collide over the San Joaquin Delta but both make safe landings although badly damaged. The Navy men, logging flying time for credits, were Lt. J. L. Scoggins, pilot, and Lt. R. Taylor, of Berkeley. They recovered to NAS Alameda. The damaged C-54, which was believed to be en route to Kelly Field, Texas, was escorted back to its base at Travis AFB by a plane of the 41st Air Rescue Squadron, from Hamilton AFB. The C-54 pilot dealt with sticking landing gear but finally got it extended for a safe landing. It was not known how many were aboard the transport. The collision took place at 6,000 feet, between Stockton and Sacramento.

1961 - A U.S. Air Force North American F-100C Super Sabre of the 136th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 107th Tactical Fighter Group, New York Air National Guard, departs Niagara Falls Air Force Base, New York, on a training flight to Erie, Pennsylvania, but pilot Lt. Edward Metlot, of New York City, is informed by his wingman that his plane is on fire. He steers the fighter towards the Niagara River Gorge to avoid populated areas, ejecting at the last moment, the plane narrowly missing forty workmen on the Queenston-Lewiston Steel Arch Bridge. He lands along the American shoreline, the jet impacting on the riverbank and exploding below Niagara Falls.

1966 – Former USS Pheasant (MSF-61/AM-61) was sunk as a target.

1977 - US Coast Guard Boat 56022 sank in a storm. The boat was located by shipwreck explorers, Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville. While on route from Oswego to Niagara, NY, the 56-foot Coast Guard cable boat experienced 6-foot waves and winds of 50 mph as it approached Nine Mile Point on Lake Ontario. The boat, a converted landing craft (LCM) with an open deck, was taking water over the gunwale faster than the 3-man crew could pump it out.
The Charlotte Coast Guard Station dispatched its motor lifeboat to the scene where it found the 50-ton cable boat listing to its port side. They removed the crew and took the boat in tow, but a wave parted the line and the cable boat sank some seven miles west of Pultneyville, NY., and about a mile offshore.

1985 – Former USS Thuban (AKA-19) was under two from Hampton Roads, VA to Vigo, Spain for breaking up. She sank in mid-Atlantic when the tow line parted during heavy weather.

1989 - A leased CASA 212-300 Aviocar, 88–320, N296CA, c/n 296, operated by the US Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) for testing duties, crashes at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland. The crew had been conducting tests of tracking equipment during the short flight from Davison AAF at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Aircraft crashed and sank into the water ~ 50 yards off shore, in 45 feet water, reportedly because the flight crew inadvertently selected "beta range" on the propellers at 800 feet, stalled and crashed into the river. Pilot CW4 Gaylord M. Bishop, copilot CW4 Howard E. Morton, SPC Peter Rivera-Santos, PFC Mark C. Elkins, and CIV Ronald N. Whiteley Jr. KWF.

 

[mhansen2]

2 December

1946 – (1 or 2 December) A US Army Air Force A-26 Invader piloted by George A. Curry of the US Army Air Force 45th Reconnaissance Squadron, Furth, Germany, became lost in heavy, unfavorable weather while on a mission to Amsterdam, Netherlands, and eventually landed near the village of Egyek, northeast of Budapest, Hungary. The other crewman on board was Donald G. Gelnett. The landed safely and the aircraft was flyable, but very low on fuel. The local townspeople welcomed the Americans. Soviet Air Force officers questioned the crew and were satisfied once Curry let them develop the on-board film and they saw nothing of consequence (he had kept his classified maps and town plans hidden). On 6 December an American officer arrived from Budapest with enough fuel to get the A-26 out of the field, and on the 7th they flew over to the regular Budapest airfield. After an adequate refueling there, but hampered by weather delays, the crew and aircraft returned to their home base on 12 December via Vienna, Austria.

1959 - A USAF Douglas VC-47D Skytrain, 43-49024, c/n 14840/26285, built as C-47B-10-DK, crashes and burns in woods 10 miles (16 km) N of Oslo, Norway, killing all four on board. There was fog in the area at the time of the accident.

1964 - SAC Boeing B-47E Stratojet, 53-2398, of the 380th Bomb Wing, suffers collapse of forward main gear unit, skids off right side of runway at Plattsburgh AFB, New York, crew escapes safely. Airframe struck off charge 13 January 1965.

1966 - A U.S. Navy Beechcraft T-34C Turbo Mentor crashes at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama, killing the instructor and his student navigator from Italy. The pair, flying out of NAS Pensacola, Florida, were practicing maneuvers.

1967 – Former USS Cecil J. Doyle (DE-368) was sunk as a target off the California coast.

2004 - The pilot of a Blue Angels McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18 Hornet, BuNo 161956, ejects approximately one mile off Perdido Key, Florida, after reporting mechanical problems and loss of power. Lt. Ted Steelman suffered minor injuries and fully recovered.

2010 - USN McDonnell Douglas F/A-18C Hornet, BuNo 165184, 'AD-351', suffered port undercarriage collapse on landing at NAF El Centro, California, at 1615 hrs., and departs runway. The pilot ejects safely.

 

[mhansen2]

3 December

1861 – Union vessel VIGILANT was en route in ballast from New York City to Sombrero in the West Indies, where her crew intended to collect guano. The 1,100-ton armed full-rigged ship was captured and burned in the North Atlantic Ocean several hundred miles southeast of Bermuda by merchant raider CSS SUMTER.

1864 - The Confederate 634-gross ton sidewheel paddle Steamer ELLA, a blockade runner with a cargo of Holland gin, munitions, and rifle-muskets, was forced aground near the lighthouse at Bald Head Point off Fort Holmes on the coast of North Carolina near the mouth of the Cape Fear River southeast of Cape Fear by the armed screw steamer USS EMMA and gunboat USS PEQUOT. Six ships of the US Navy’s South Atlantic Blockading Squadron and Confederate artillery shelled ELLA for two days, hitting her at least 40 times, before a U.S. Navy boat party boarded and burned her on 5 December.

1928 - The prototype Curtiss XF8C-2, BuNo A7673, crashes during a terminal-velocity dive, just days after its first flight. Another source cites the loss date as 23 December 1928.

1951 - A Boeing B-29A-45-BN Superfortress, 44-61797, of the 3417th AMS, 3415th AMG, Lowry AFB, Colorado, piloted by James W. Shanks, trying to reach Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Colorado, with one motor not working crashed into a row of residential homes, killing eight airmen. At least one civilian and five airmen were injured. Five houses were damaged—four of them demolished.

1953 - Air Force cadet Orrin W. Vail, 21, Riverside, California, is killed when his Lockheed T-33A Shooting Star crashes five miles from James Connally Air Force Base, Waco, Texas.

1953 - Boeing B-47E-60-BW Stratojet, 51-2440, of the 303d Bomb Wing, on a training flight explodes in flight late Thursday and crashes into mountainous terrain NE of Tucson, Arizona. Officials at Davis-Monthan AFB identify the four dead as: Lt. Col. Douglas H. Bratcher, Dallas, Texas; Maj. Heyward W. McEver, Teaneck, New Jersey; Capt. Jesse G. Williams, Kenedy, Texas, all pilots; and A1C William L. Child, Nevada, Iowa, a crew chief. A ground crew dispatched to the scene recovered all four bodies from the blackened wreckage.

1960 - A fully fueled Martin XSM-68-3-MA Titan I ICBM, 58-2254, a Lot V missile, V-2, being lowered into a silo at the Operational System Test Facility, Vandenberg AFB, California, following pre-launch tests, the ninth attempt at completing this test, drops to the bottom of the underground launch tube when the elevator fails. The missile explodes, wrecking the silo, which is never repaired. There were no injuries.

1961 - A USAF Douglas C-47 Skytrain departs Aviano Air Base, Italy, on a routine practice flight, and less than a half hour later crashes into a 4,000-foot fog-shrouded Alpine mountain, killing all four crew. The Associated Press reports from Udine, Italy, that the plane was a mere 15 feet short of clearing the peak. Rescue teams working their way up the mountainside are guided by the flaming wreckage.

1970 – Former USS Bluegill (SS/SSK/AGSS-242) was sunk and moored to the bottom as a salvage trainer about two kilometers off Lahaina, Hawaii in 40 metres (130 ft) of water. For the next 13 years, her hull was used for underwater rescue training. In November 1984, after a month of preparatory work, the twin Edenton-class salvage and rescue ships Beaufort (ATS-2) and Brunswick (ATS-3) raised ex-Bluegill and towed her to deep water where she was sunk with military honors.

1985 - A U.S. Navy aviator is killed at Naval Air Station Miramar, California, when, upon landing at 0910 hrs. on a slick runway after a flight from NAS Point Mugu, California, his F/A-18A-15-MC Hornet (Lot 7), BuNo 162435, skids ~5,000 feet down the 12,000 foot runway, then overturns, trapping the pilot underneath the inverted airframe. "A Miramar crash crew worked feverishly for about 30 minutes to free the strapped-in pilot from the cockpit. The crew eventually brought in a crane to lift the front of the jet fighter high enough to pull him out. Despite spilling its fuel, the aircraft did not burn. The injured pilot was airlifted by Life Flight helicopter to UC San Diego Medical Center, where he died at 10:25 a.m. Officials would not divulge the cause of death."
Lt. John Semcken, public affairs spokesman at Miramar, identified the pilot as Capt. Henry M. Kleemann, 42, Commanding Officer of VX-4. Kleemann, who was married and had four children, was one of two Navy pilots assigned to USS Nimitz (CVN-68) who shot down two Libyan fighters in the Gulf of Sirte on 19 August 1981, after the Libyans fired at the U.S. aircraft. Kleemann was stationed at Point Mugu Naval Air Station near Oxnard, Semcken said. Miramar officials said the aircraft did not deploy a drag chute when it landed, and it appeared that Kleemann was relying solely on the brakes. Navy officials are also trying to determine why the aircraft's canopy landed several feet away from the aircraft, and if Kleemann could have been trying to eject before the craft rolled over. "All of this is just speculation at this point. We have no real clue as to what could have caused the crash. It's under investigation," Semcken said. He said the aircraft has computerized landing and takeoff systems and a computerized anti-skidding system. "We're looking at the landing gear and aircraft's wheels to see what went wrong. The investigators are looking to see if the anti-skidding system failed."
Autopsy surgeons determined that the pilot died almost immediately after the crash from a severed spinal cord. Kleemann had nearly 4,000 flight hours, but fewer than 43 in the F/A-18. The Hornet was a nearly new airframe with only 327 flying hours being used in the operational testing of the design. Investigators pinpointed the planing link on the undercarriage whose task is to guide the gear components' complex manoeuvers during retraction as a probable cause. If damaged during retraction after departing Point Mugu, the link may have caused the starboard wheel to be slightly out of line. As the fighter's weight settled onto the gear leg, the airframe may have swerved so sharply that the pilot was unable to maintain control. Repaired, this airframe is struck off charge on 27 June 2007, and is now displayed at Patriots Point, Charleston, South Carolina.

 

[mhansen2]

4 December

1864 - The 274-ton Union whaler EDWARD, a bark, was captured and burned in the South Atlantic Ocean off Tristan da Cunha by merchant raider CSS SHENANDOAH.

1908 – USS YANKEE was conducting a training exercise when she ran aground on Spindle Rock near Hen and Chickens lightship, MA. She remained there until refloated on the 4th December. Her reprieve however, was short-lived. While being towed to New Bedford, she sank in Buzzards Bay.

1929 - Curtiss B-2 Condor, 29-28, assigned to the 96th Bomb Squadron, Langley Field, Virginia, crashes at Goodwater, Alabama, with 69 total flight hours on airframe. Pilots 2nd Lt. James M. Gillespie and Ernest G. Schmidt KWF. This was the second of four crashes of the 13 total B-2s the USAAC acquired.

1945 - USS Osamekin (YTB-191) sank south of Kodiak Island in the Gulf of Alaska, cause unknown.

1953 - "SAN DIEGO (AP) - Death of Lt. Dean Converse of Long Beach, in the crash of his A2F Grumman Guardian 50 miles off Long Beach was announced by Pacific Fleet air headquarters here Friday."

1953 - "CHERRY POINT N.C. (AP) - A search for a jet training plane with two pilots aboard uncovered no clues Sunday, a Cherry Point Marine spokesman reported. The plane, a silver-colored trainer, has been missing since Friday. The Cherry Point public information office said Saturday the pilots were 1st Lt. Duke Williams Jr., 27, of Yazoo City, Miss., a former prisoner of the Chinese Communists in Korea, and Capt. John H. Barclay, 34, of Santa Monica, Calif."

1959 - On Friday, December 4, 1959, Ensign Albert Joe Hickman was practicing aircraft carrier landings as part of a training mission conducted from Naval Air Station Miramar, California. When his McDonnell F3H Demon suddenly stalled, Hickman was still 2,000 feet (610 m) above ground. He could easily have ejected from the cockpit in time to save his own life. Below him, however, and directly in the path of the crippled plane was Hawthorne Elementary School, where more than 700 children were playing in the schoolyard.
Hickman chose to remain in the cockpit. He somehow maneuvered the descending plane away from the school, assuring the safety and probably saving the lives – of several hundred people. Now at an altitude of only 60 feet (18 m), he no longer had the option to eject. The plane crashed into a nearby canyon, exploding on impact and Albert J. Hickman was killed. A school in the San Diego community of Mira Mesa was later named after him. American Legion Post 460 in San Diego, Department of California, is named the Albert J. Hickman Post.

1962 - A USAF Lockheed C-121G Super Constellation, 54-4066, c/n 4146, operated by MATS, crashes and burns during a landing attempt at Naval Air Station Agana, Guam. Five crew survive, three are presumed dead. No passengers were thought aboard. Names of the crew, all from NAS Moffett Field, California, were not immediately available. The plane, carrying a load of aircraft parts to Guam, left Travis Air Force Base on Friday.

1973 – Former USS Frankford (DD-497) was sunk as a target off Puerto Rico.

1989 - USCG Mesquite (WLB 305) grounded on a reef off of the Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan, in Lake Superior after replacing the summer navigational buoy that warned about that very reef. After several hours of trying to free the vessel, the crew reluctantly abandoned ship. Deemed beyond repair, the ship was sunk just off the peninsula in 110 feet of water.

1994 – Former USS Raleigh (LPD-1) was sunk as a target some 60 nm SE of Puerto Rico.

2002 – Former USS Caron (DD-970) was sunk 75nm S. of Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico during explosive tests. She was intended to survive these tests and scheduled to be sunk as a target later in 2003, but secondary explosions caused her to sink.

2011 - A US Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), conducting covert military surveillance is allegedly "brought down with minimum damage" near the city of Kashmar in northeastern Iran. The Iranian government claims that the UAV was shot down or hacked into by its electronic warfare unit.

 

[mhansen2]

5 December

1861 – Former whaler USS PHOENIX was scuttled as part of the "Stone Fleet" to form a breakwater off Tybee Island, Georgia.

1862 – Confederate schooner ALICIA was captured and destroyed in Jupiter Inlet off Florida by gunboat USS SAGAMORE.

1862 - Howitzer boats from armed sidewheel paddle steamers USS GENERAL PUTNAM and USS MAHASKA destroyed a schooner, two sloops, and several boats in branches of the Severn River in Virginia.

1864 - While at anchor, Union tug LIZZIE FREEMAN was captured and destroyed on the James River off Pagan Creek near Smithfield, Virginia, by a Confederate States Navy boarding party.

1864 – While carrying a cargo of sutler′s goods, an unidentified Union schooner was captured and burned on the James River off Pagan Creek near Smithfield, Virginia, by a Confederate States Navy boarding party.

1945 - Flight 19, a training flight of 5 Grumman TBM Avenger torpedo bombers, manned by 14 US Navy and Marine personnel from Ft Lauderdale Naval Air Station, Florida, USA, vanishes over the “Bermuda Triangle” under mysterious circumstances. Avengers were four TBM-1Cs, BuNo 45714, 'FT3', BuNo 46094, 'FT36', BuNo 46325, 'FT81', BuNo 73209, 'FT117', and TBM-3, BuNo 23307, 'FT28'. A US Navy Martin PBM-5 Mariner, BuNo 59225, carrying 13 sailors departs NAS Banana River, Florida, to search for the missing planes, also disappears after a large mid-air explosion is seen near its last reported position.

1947 – Former USS LST-559 was sold to Bosey, Philippines, where her hulk was sunk to extend the breakwater in Subic Bay.

1953 - "LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (AP) - Four Air National Guard Thunderjet pilots making a weekend instrument flight crashed to their deaths near here Saturday night. Officials at Dobbins Air Force Base in nearby Marietta said the F-84s were returning from Miami and preparing to land when they fell from about 11,500 feet. One of the falling Thunderjets struck and demolished a small unoccupied house. The other three fighters fell nearby. All four pilots were members of the 116th Fighter Bomber Wing, Georgia National Guard.
They were identified as: Capt. Idon M. Hodge Jr., 30, of Atlanta, the flight leader. 1st Lt. Elwood C. Kent, 28, of East Point, Ga. 1st Lt. Samuel P. Dixon, of Chamblee, Ga. 2nd Lt. William A. Tennent, 25, of Atlanta. Maj. W. J. Gay, of the Dobbins base operations office said Capt. Hodge radioed the Atlanta Naval Air Station, a checkpoint for planes landing at Dobbins, that the formation was starting its descent from 27,000 feet and would report again at 11,500. The fliers were not heard from again. Gay said the crash occurred about 25 miles northeast of Atlanta. The planes fell about four miles west of Lawrenceville. Dobbins officials said all the men were experienced jet pilots and they knew of no reason for the crashes. An investigation is under way. Three of the pilots - Kent, Dixon and Tennent - made up a stunt team specializing in close formation and acrobatic flying. Hodge and Kent were veterans of World War II and Hodge was a combat pilot in Korea."

1956 - A Northrop XSM-62 Snark, 53-8172, N-69D test model, fitted with new 24-hour stellar inertial guidance system, launches from Cape Canaveral Missile Test Annex, Florida. It wanders off-course, ignores destruct command and disappears over Brazil. It is found by a farmer in January 1983.

1961 - US Air Force F-102s out of Galena Alaska made the first intercept of a Soviet aircraft in Alaskan air space, a Soviet Tu-16 Badger.

1963 – Test pilot Robert Rushworth flew the X-15 to 30,785 meters (101,006 feet) and Mach 6.06.

1964 - An LGM-30B Minuteman I missile is on strategic alert at Launch Facility (LF) L-02, Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, when two airmen are dispatched to the LF to repair the inner zone (IZ) security system. In the midst of their checkout of the IZ system, one retrorocket in the spacer below the Reentry Vehicle (RV) fires, causing the RV to fall about 75 feet to the floor of the silo. When the RV strikes bottom, the arming and fusing/altitude control subsystem containing the batteries are torn loose, thus removing all sources of power from the RV. The RV structure receives considerable damage. All safety devices operate properly in that they do not sense the proper sequence of events to allow arming the warhead. There is no detonation or radioactive contamination.

1965 - Douglas A-4E Skyhawk, BuNo 151022, of VA-56 on nuclear alert status, armed with one Mark 43 TN nuclear weapon, rolls off an elevator of USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14), in the Pacific Ocean. The Skyhawk was being rolled from the number 2 hangar bay to the number 2 elevator when it was lost. Airframe, pilot Lt. D.M. Webster, and bomb are lost in 16,000 feet of water 80 miles from one of the Ryukyu Islands in Okinawa. No public mention was made of the incident at the time and it would not come to light until a 1981 Pentagon report revealed that a one-megaton bomb had been lost. Japan then asks for details of the incident.

1972 - During an Aerospace Defense Command night training mission, Convair F-102A-80-CO Delta Dagger, 56-1517, of the 157th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, South Carolina Air National Guard, McEntire Air National Guard Base, South Carolina, collides with Lockheed C-130E Hercules, 64-0558, of the 318th Special Operations Squadron, out of Pope AFB, North Carolina, during a simulated interception, over the Bayboro area of Horry County, east of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. One is killed in the Delta Dagger and all twelve on board the Hercules perish. Some press reports list Conway, South Carolina, west of the crash site, as the location.

1988 - A U.S. Navy Grumman EA-6B Prowler, BuNo 163044, 'NG', of VAQ-139, goes missing over the Pacific Ocean during training exercise 900 miles off San Diego. Search fails to find any sign of the four crew.

1994 - A U.S. Navy pilot from Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, is killed when he loses control of his Beechcraft T-34C Turbo Mentor near Robertsdale, Alabama.

2004 – Former USS Inchon (LPH/MCS-12) was sunk as a target some 210 nm east of Virginia Beach, VA.

 

[mhansen2]

6 December

1863 – Monitor USS Weehawken lay anchored about 1.5 miles off shore of Morris Island, Charleston Harbor, SC., during a moderate gale. Suddenly, the ironclad signaled for assistance and appeared to observers ashore to be sinking. Attempts to beach the vessel failed, and she sank bow first five minutes later in 30 ft (9.1 m) of water. A court of inquiry found that Weehawken had recently taken on a considerable amount of heavy ammunition in her forward compartments.
This change excessively reduced her forward freeboard, causing water to rush down an open hawse pipe and hatch during the storm. As the bow sank, and the stern rose, water could not flow aft to the pumps and the vessel foundered. Four officers and 27 enlisted men drowned aboard Weehawken.

1863 - ISAAC NEWTON was a Union side-wheel steamer of 1332 tons, built in 1846 at New York City that exploded on the Potomac River at Fort Washington, MD., with nine killed.

1864 – Confederate schooner Alabama (not to be confused with sloop-of-war CSS Alabama) was forced aground on the coast of Texas near San Luis Pass by cruiser USS Princess Royal. A boarding party from Princess Royal captured and refloated her.

1917 - USS Jacob Jones (DD-61) was torpedoed and sunk 30 miles (48 km) south of the Isles of Scilly, United Kingdom by U-53. Sixty-six of the crew were killed, two were taken prisoner.

1922 - "NEWPORT NEWS, Va., Dec. 6. - Major Guy L. Gearhart, of Leavenworth, Kan., Captain Benton A. Doyle, of St. Louis, and four enlisted men were killed today in a collision between a Martin bomber and a Fokker scout plane, 250 feet above the Hampton Normal School farm, which adjoins Langley field. The machines burst into flames and were destroyed, and several men who attempted to rescue the men pinned beneath the wreckage were severely burned. The bomber, piloted by Captain Doyle, took the air to lead a formation of six planes and was 'banking' when the scout machine, in charge of Major Gearhart, rose swiftly and hit it in the rear. The other machines already in the air maneuvered out of the way and effected safe landings. It was announced tonight that a board of inquiry would investigate the accident." Fokker D.VII, AS-7795, ex-German FF7795/18, hit Martin NBS-1, AS-68491.

1943 - USAAF Douglas A-20G-20-DO Havoc, 42-86782, of the 649th Bomb Squadron, 411th Bombardment Group (Light), out of Florence Army Airfield, South Carolina, crashed near Woodruff, Spartanburg County, South Carolina, three miles E of Switzer. Pilot 2nd Lt. Hampton P. Worrell, 26, (b. 27 September 1917 in South Carolina), gunners Sgt. Harry G. Barnes, 19, (b. 22 September 1924 in New York) and Sgt. John D. Hickman, 21, (b. 31 December 1923 in California), all killed.

1944 - Lockheed XF-14 Shooting Star, 44-83024, c/n 080-1003, originally YP-80A No 2, redesignated during production, of the 4144th Base Unit, destroyed in mid-air collision with B-25J-20-NC, 44-29120, of the 421st Base Unit, near Muroc Army Air Base, California. All crew on both planes killed, coming down 7 miles SSW of Randsburg, California. XF-14 pilot was Perry B. Claypool, while Henry M. Phillips flew the B-25.

1957 - The first launch attempt of the first all-up three-stage Vanguard rocket, Vanguard TV3, developed by the Naval Research Laboratory, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 18, Florida, fails as the vehicle reaches an apogee of ~four feet (1.2 meters), then suffers a loss of thrust, fails back onto the pad, the fuel tanks rupture and explode, destroying the rocket and severely damaging the launchpad. The 1.36 kilogram satellite is thrown clear, landing near the pad, whereupon it begins transmitting a signal. No exact cause for the failure is determined, but the commonly accepted explanation is that low fuel tank pressure during the start procedure allowed some of the burning fuel in the combustion chamber to leak into the fuel system through the injector head before full propellant pressure was obtained from the turbopump. The press dubs the failed attempt "Kaputnik". The satellite is now on display at the National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C.


1960 – Test pilot Scott Crossfield flew the X-15 to 16,268 meters (53,375 feet) and Mach 2.85.

1988 - A USAF Boeing B-52H-150-BW Stratofortress, 60-0040, crashed on the runway at 0115 hrs. EST at K.I. Sawyer AFB, Michigan, while doing touch-and-goes after a seven-hour training flight. No weapons were aboard the bomber, which broke into three parts. All crew survived, crawling or being helped from the nose section, without sustaining burns.

 

[mhansen2]

7 December

1861 - MESSENGER was a Union steamer of 254 tons, built in 1855 at Belle Vernon, PA. that was wrecked at Rochester, PA.

1864 - Screw steamer USS Narcissus struck a Confederate mine in Mobile Bay off Mobile, Alabama, during a heavy storm and sank without loss of life. She was raised, repaired, and returned to service.

1922 - DH-4B, AS-63780, departs Rockwell Field, San Diego, California at 0905 hrs. bound for Fort Huachuca, Arizona. Piloted by 1st Lt. Charles L. Webber, Col. Francis C. Marshall, attached to the staff of the chief of cavalry in Washington, D.C., is aboard for an inspection trip of cavalry posts and camps. When the aircraft never arrives, one of the largest man-hunts in Air Service history is mounted but when search is finally given up on 23 February 1923 nothing had been found. Wreckage is eventually discovered 12 May 1923 by a man hunting stray cattle in the mountains. Flight apparently hit Cuyamaca Peak just a few miles east of San Diego in fog within thirty minutes of departure.

1936 - First Boeing Y1B-17, 36–149, c/n 1973, first flown 2 December, makes rough landing at Boeing Field, Seattle, Washington, on third flight, when Army pilot Major Stanley Umstead touches down with locked brakes, airframe ends up on nose after short skid. Pilot had used heavy brake applications before take-off, then immediately retracted the overheated undercarriage instead of letting air stream cool it, whereupon the bi-metal brakes fused. Repaired, Flying Fortress departs for Wright Field on 11 January 1937.

1937 - USS Koka (AT-31) ran aground on the Northwest of San Clemente Island, California.

1941 – Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brings US into World War Two.

1943 - During a joint U.S. Navy–U.S. Marine simulated close air support exercise near Pauwela, Maui, Territory of Hawaii, the pilot of a U.S. Navy Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless, BuNo 36045 of squadron VB-10, initiates a slight right-hand turn and deploys dive brakes in preparation for a bomb run, but his aircraft is struck by a second VB-10 SBD-5, 36099, that did not have dive brakes deployed. Both aircraft crash, and a bomb knocked loose from 36045 falls among a group of marines and detonates, killing 20 and seriously injuring 24. Both SBD pilots parachute to safety, but both SBD gunners die, one after an unsuccessful bailout attempt.
The collision is attributed to poor judgment and flying technique by both pilots. Aviation Archaeology Investigation & Research gives the date of this accident as 6 December.

1944 - The sole Northrop JB-1A Bat, unofficially known as the "Thunderbug" due to the improvised General Electric B-1 turbojets' "peculiar squeal", a jet-propelled flying wing spanning 28 feet 4 inches (8.64 m) to carry 2,000 lb (910 kg). bombs in pods close to the engines, makes its first powered, but unmanned, flight from Santa Rosa Island, Eglin Field, Florida, launching from a pair of rails laid across the sand dunes. It climbs rapidly, stalls, and crashes 400 yards from the launch point.

1951 - The 6555th Guided Missile Squadron at Cape Canaveral, Florida, launches Martin B-61 Matador, GM-547. Lift-off and flight were normal, but the missile did not respond properly to guidance signals, and it finally went out of control and fell into the Atlantic 15 minutes and 20 seconds after launch. The flight covered 105 miles.

1955 - First prototype Martin XP6M-1 Seamaster, BuNo 138821, c/n XP-1, first flown July 14, 1955, disintegrates in flight at 5,000 feet (1,500 m) due to horizontal tail going to full up in control malfunction, subjecting airframe to 9 G stress as it began an outside loop, crashing into Potomac River near junction of St. Mary's River, killing four crew, pilot Navy Lieutenant Commander Utgoff, and Martin employees, Morris Bernhard, assistant pilot, Herbert Scudder, flight engineer, and H.B. Coulon, flight test engineer.

1966 - US Army Grumman OV-1B Mohawk, 62-5894, of the 122nd Aviation Company, on photo mission out of Fleigerhorst AAF, Hanau, Germany, is written off after engine failure then fire. Pilot Capt. Bill Ebert and crewman SP4 Ken Bakos eject. Aircraft crashes in a small forest outside the town of Volkartshain.

1968 - USCG White Adler (WAGL-541) collided with M/V Helena, a 455-foot Taiwanese freighter in the Mississippi River at mile 195.3 above Head of Passes near White Castle, Louisiana and sank in 75-feet of water. Three of the crew of twenty were rescued, the other seventeen perished. Divers recovered the bodies of three of the crew but river sediment buried the cutter so quickly that continued recovery and salvage operations proved impractical. The Coast Guard decided to leave the remaining 14 crewmen entombed in the sunken cutter which to this day remains buried in the bottom of the Mississippi River.

1977 - Lockheed U-2R, 68-10330, Article 052, was the second airframe of first R-model order, originally registered N809X and delivered to the 100th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, 25 July 1968. It was the testbed for Senior Lance and U.S. Navy EP-X trials, then delivered to the 9th SRW in 1976.
Said aircraft crashed this date at RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus, (Operating Area OH) [Operating Location 'Olive Harvest'], pilot Capt. Robert Henderson killed when he crashes into the Met Office next to the control tower on take-off. Also killed are British duty forecaster Jack Flawn and four locally employed Cypriot staff, as well as 14 other injuries. Fires burn for three hours. The Met Office staff were the first to be killed on duty in peacetime since M. A. Giblett died on the R101 in October 1930.

2016 - USMC single-seat F/A-18C Hornet piloted by Capt. Jake Fredrick crashed in the Pacific Ocean, about 120 miles southeast of Iwakuni, Japan. The pilot escapes but dies after ejecting out of the plane. His body is found and identified next day.

 

[mhansen2]

8 December

1846 - USS Somers, a 259-ton Bainbridge class brig, was built at the New York Navy Yard and commissioned in 1842. While commanded by Lieutenant Raphael Semmes, Somers was chasing a blockade runner off Vera Cruz, Mexico, when she was caught in a sudden storm. Capsized by the heavy winds, she quickly sank with the loss of more than thirty of her crew. In recent years, her wreck has been discovered and explored by divers.

1861 - The following ships were beached at Tybee Island, Georgia, to form a wharf.
USS Cossack
USS Peter Demill
USS South America

1861 – Bark and whaler Ebenezer Dodge was sailing from New Bedford, Massachusetts, to the Pacific Ocean with a crew of 22. The whaler, a bark, was captured and burned in the mid-Atlantic by merchant raider CSS Sumter.

1862 - Arkansas was a Confederate side wheel paddle steamer built in 1832 at Cincinnati. She was trapped at low water in the Arkansas River above Lee's Creek Bluff. Part of the vessel’s cargo was unloaded and she was then burned on Maj. General Thomas C. Hindmans orders to prevent capture by Maj. General James G. Blunt's advancing Union forces.

1862 - The 171-ton sternwheel paddle steamer Lake City was burned by Confederate guerrillas on the Mississippi River at Carson's Landing, Arkansas.

1863 - Attempting to run the Union blockade and reach Fernandina, Florida, British schooner Antoinette was forced aground on Cumberland Island on the coast of Georgia by bark USS Braziliera.

1864 - The sloop Mary Ann, a blockade runner with a cargo of cotton, was forced aground and destroyed by the gunboat USS Itasca on the coast of Texas at Pass Cavallo.

1927 - Prototype Curtiss XB-2 Condor, 26-211, assigned to Wright Field, Ohio in October 1927, crashes at Buffalo, New York after having logged only 58 hours, 55 minutes flying time.

1953 – Test pilot Chuck Yeager flew the X-1A to 18,300 meters (60,042 feet) and Mach 1.9.

1964 - U.S. Air Force Convair B-58A Hustler, 60-1116, of the 305th Bomb Wing, taxiing for take-off on icy taxiway at Bunker Hill AFB, Indiana, is blown off the pavement by exhaust of another departing Convair B-58 Hustler, strikes a concrete manhole box adjacent to the runway, landing gear collapses, burns. Navigator killed in failed ejection, two other crew okay. Four B43 nuclear bombs and either a W39 or W53 warhead are on board the weapons pod, but no explosion takes place and contamination is limited to crash site.

1967 - NASA astronaut Maj. Robert Henry Lawrence, Jr., is killed in the crash of a Lockheed F-104D Starfighter, 57-1327, of the 6515th Organizational Maintenance Squadron, while practicing zoom landings with Maj. Harvey Royer at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Lawrence was flying backseat on the mission as the instructor pilot for a flight test trainee learning the steep-descent glide technique intended for the cancelled Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar program. The pilot of the aircraft successfully ejected and survived the accident, but with major injuries. The F-104 they were flying came in too low and hit the runway. Royer ejected, but Lawrence was killed.

1968 - Lunar Landing Research Vehicle No. 1 crashes at Ellington Air Force Base, Texas. NASA Manned Spacecraft Center test pilot Joseph Algranti ejects safely.

1968 – Former USS Jesse Rutherford (DE-347) was sunk as a target off the California coast.

1988 - A USAF Fairchild-Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II crashes into the West German town of Remscheid. The pilot and five residents are killed and a further 50 people injured.


2006 – Former USS Spruance (DD-963) was sunk as a target of the Virginia Capes.

2008 - A USMC McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18D Hornet, BuNo 164017, crashed into the neighborhood of University City, coming down two miles (3 km) west of MCAS Miramar, California, just after the Marine pilot, Lieutenant Dan Neubauer, from VMFAT-101, ejected. Four fatalities on the ground. The Hornet was being flown from the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72). The commander of the fighter squadron involved in the crash, its top maintenance officer and two others have been relieved of duty as a result of the crash investigation. The pilot has been grounded pending a further review, Maj. Gen. Randolph Alles announced in March 2009.

 

[mhansen2]

9 December

1864 – Gunboat USS Otsego struck two torpedoes (mines) in quick succession and sank on the Roanoke Rivernear Jamesville, North Carolina. Tug USS Bazely coming to help, also ran into a mine and sank right next to her.

1864 - Tug USS Bazely sank instantly with the loss of two lives after striking a Confederate mine in the Roanoke River near Jamesville, North Carolina, while coming to the aid of the gunboat USS Otsego. Her wreck was destroyed on 25 December to prevent its capture by Confederate forces.

1864 – Union schooner Robert B. Howlett was wrecked on North Bar or Charleston Bar, SC., during a hurricane. One survivor was rescued by the Eliza Hancox and two men died.

1864 - Confederate Gen. Hylan B. Lyon's brigade captured and burned 4 steamers and 2 barges at Cumberland City, 20 miles below Nashville on the Cumberland River. The steamers were:
Paddle Steamship Ben South (176 tons)
Paddle Steamship Echo (100 tons)
Paddle Steamship Thomas E. Tutt (351 tons)
And one unnamed.

1925 - The 111th Observation Squadron, Texas National Guard, suffers its first casualties when Capt. Emil Wagner and Lt. Luke McLaughlin put a Curtiss JN-6H, 38105, into a steep dive whereupon the port wing collapses and the airframe plummets to the ground at Ellington Field, Texas. Both crew members survive the impact but die later in a Houston hospital.

1943 - Boeing B-17G-20-BO Flying Fortress, 42-31468, "The Galley Uncle", force landed during ferry flight from Gander in a field adjacent to Graan Monastery, near Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. One crew died and five were saved by local monks.

1946 – Test pilot Chalmers Goodlin flew the X-1 #2 on its first powered flight reaching 10,675 meters (35,024 feet) and Mach 0.79. Minor engine fire.

1955 - A USAF Republic F-84F-45-RE Thunderstreak, 52-6692, based at RAF Sculthorpe, suffers flame-out and after several failed attempts at a relight, the pilot, Lt. Roy G. Evans, 24, ejects at 3,500 feet. The fighter comes down on the Lodge Moor Infectious Diseases Hospital on the outskirts of Sheffield at 1700 hrs., striking two wards, killing one patient, Mrs. Elsie Murdock, 46, of South Road, Sheffield, and injuring seven others. Fires are under control by 1930 hrs.

1958 - U.S. Army Major General Bogardus Snowden "Bugs" Cairns, a key proponent of the concept of armed helicopters, was killed instantly when his Bell H-13 Sioux helicopter crashed minutes after take-off in dense woods northwest of Fort Rucker, Alabama headquarters. The aircraft was taking off from field site when it hit a wire extended between two tents causing pilot to lose control and fly into trees.
He was en route to Matteson Range to observe a firepower rehearsal in preparation for a full-scale armed helicopter display. He was commander of the Aviation Center and Commandant of the Aviation School. Ozark Army Airfield at Fort Rucker was subsequently renamed Cairns Army Airfield in his honor in January 1959.

1958 - Boeing B-52E Stratofortress, 56-0633, of the 11th Bomb Wing, crashes near Altus AFB, Oklahoma, due to improper use of stabilizer trim during an overshoot. Returning from a routine night training mission, aircraft makes a GCA approach, requests climb to altitude for another penetration, experiences stab trim problems, crashes ~four miles from base at 2345 hrs. Pilot Major Byard F. Baker, 39, of Azle, Texas, ejects; eight other crew die.

1960 – Test pilot Neil Armstrong flew the X-15 to 15,269 meters (50,097 feet) and Mach 1.80.

1964 - Test pilot Milton Thompson flew the X-15 to 28,164 meters (92,406 feet) and Mach 5.42.

1968 - A Northrop F-89J Scorpion of the 124th Fighter Squadron, Iowa Air National Guard, crashes into a farm home near Story City, Iowa, while on a routine bomber interceptor training mission, killing both crew members. Six members of the Peter Tjernagel family escaped the burning home without serious injury which was destroyed as was a corn crib. "The body of one of the plane's crewmen was found near the blazing wreckage. Story county Sheriff J. I. Shalley said the second crewman parachuted and was taken to a hospital. Authorities said later he also was dead." Air National Guard officials identified the pilot as Capt. John Rooks, of Eldora, and his radar interceptor as Lt. Larry Thomas of Ogden. "The crash two miles northeast of here hurled wreckage over an area of over a quarter of a mile. Some of the debris fell on nearby Interstate highway 35, closing the highway for a time." The Guard F-89Js were replaced in the summer of 1969 with F-84F Thunderstreaks.


1999 - During a USN "Fast Rope" training exercise, a Boeing-Vertol CH-46D Sea Knight, BuNo 154790, c/n 2397, helicopter of HMM-166 departs USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6) and approaches the fantail landing pad of USNS Pecos (T-AO-197), cruising ~15 miles (24 km) WSW of Point Loma, California at 1316 hrs. The port rear landing gear leg of the helicopter snags a safety net on the deck edge and the chopper tips backwards into the Pacific, sinking within five seconds. Eleven of 18 on board escape and are picked up by Navy SEALS following USNS Pecos in zodiac boats. The bodies of six U.S. Marines and one U.S. Navy corpsman, from the 1st Force Recon, 5th Platoon, 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, based at Camp Pendleton, California, are recovered from a depth of 3,600 feet.

2003 – In Iraq, an OH-58 Kiowa helicopter is hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, forcing a crash landing. Both crew members survive.