Belly landings with all surviving are wonderful news, but not that exciting when the pilot forgot the plane needed wheels to land.
2008 – Continental Airlines begins service with the Bombardier Dash 8 Q-400 out of Newark Airport.
1986 – Pakistan International Airlines Flight 300, a 747-200 (AP-AYW) lands on its belly at Islamabad Airport because the crew forgot to lower the gear. All of the 264 aboard escaped unharmed. After Boeing repaired the aircraft, PIA flew her for another 19 years. Incidentally, New York-based startup Baltia Airlines took delivery of this airframe in 2010.
1977 – Kenya Airways begins service from Jomo Kenyatta International airport in Nairobi.
1966 – All Nippon Airways Flight 60 crashes into Tokyo Bay while on approach to Haneda International Airport. The 727-081 (JA8302) was 6.5 miles from the airport when witnesses said the aircraft splashed into the water while on fire. The cause was never determined and all 133 on-board perished.
1958 – The USS Enterprise, the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is laid down at the Newport News shipyard.
1920 – Pioneers Pierre van Ryneveld and Quentin Brand fly out of Cairo in a Vickers Vimy, crossing Africa by air from North to South. They arrived in Cape Town on March 20th.
1902 – Charles Lindbergh, one of the most famous aviators of all-time, is born in Detroit.
1902 – First balloon flight in Antarctica when Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton ascend to 244 meters in a tethered hydrogen balloon to take the first Antarctic aerial photographs.
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