N8082U, the United Airlines DC-8-61 involved, pictured in
1972 sporting a previous identifying design. Photo taken
at Seattle / Tacoma – Int. (SEA). 

       
        
       
Originating at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, United
Airlines Flight 173 stopped in Denver, and continued to
Portland on Thursday, December 28, 1978.

The pilot reported a problem with the plane’s nose landing
gear to the Portland tower, and, according to the National
Transportation Safety Board report, failed to monitor properly
the aircraft’s fuel state and to properly respond to the low
fuel state. The Board blamed pilot error for the crash

After circling Portland International Airport the DC-8 ran out
of fuel and crashed into two vacant houses and a grove of
trees at East Burnside Street, five miles southeast of the
airport and about 200 feet east of 157th Avenue  at around
6:15 P.M.

The jetliner, reportedly was carrying 172 adult passengers,
five infants and eight crew members.

     
    
    
Capt. Malburn "Buddy" McBroom (52), a World War II Navy
veteran and longtime United pilot, recovers in a Gresham,
Oregon hospital.  (KATU)        

United Flight 173 survivor Lynn Egli, right, stands with
KATU’s Steve Dunn at the memorial for the passengers
aboard United Flight 173 that killed 10 people. (KATU)

The Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, known as the Wrigley Company,
is a multinational candy and chewing gum company, based in
the Global Innovation Center  in Goose Island, Chicago, Illinois.

HONOLULU (AP) — Warren ‘Red’ Upton, the oldest living
survivor of the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and
the last remaining survivor of the USS Utah, has died. He
was 105. 

Kathleen Farley, of the California state chair of the Sons
and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors said Upton died
Wednesday at a hospital in Los Gatos, California, after
suffering a bout of pneumonia.

The Utah, a battleship, was moored at Pearl Harbor when
Japanese planes began bombing the Hawaii naval base 
in the early hours of Dec. 7, 1941, the attack propelled
the U.S. into World War II.

(FOX NEWS) – Greg Gumbel, who broadcast the NFL
on CBS and served as the network’s studio host for
March Madness, has died after a bout with cancer.     

On Christmas morning, Apollo 8 left its lunar orbit and began
its journey back to Earth, landing safely in the Pacific Ocean
on on this day in 1968 after an historic six-day journey.

On December 21, Apollo 8 was launched by a three-stage
Saturn 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, astronauts
Frank Borman, James Lovell, Jr., and William Anders were
aboard.     
   

On Christmas Eve, the astronauts entered into orbit around
the moon, the first manned spacecraft ever to do so.