The U.S. State Department angrily accused the Soviet Union of
shooting down an unarmed American jet that strayed into East
German airspace. Three U.S. officers aboard the plane were
killed in the incident. The Soviets responded with charges that
the flight was a “gross provocation,” and the incident was an
ugly reminder of  the heightened East-West tensions of the Cold
War-era.

The occupants of the aircraft were Lieutenant Colonel Gerald K. Hannaford, Captain Donald Grant Millard and Captain John F.
Lorraine.

According to the U.S. military, the jet was on a training flight over
West Germany and pilots became disoriented by a violent storm
that led the plane to veer nearly 100 miles off course.

Memorial at the crash site near Vogelsberg.

North American T-39A Sabre Liner USAF.

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19S "Farmer" at the National
Museum of the United States Air Force.

A B-17 crew from the United States Army Air Force’s Eighth
Air Force, 385th Bomb Group, plot a target on a map prior
to a mission.

The U.S. Eighth Air Force launched its bombing campaign against
Nazi Germany, one of the largest, most important and most
devastating strategic initiatives in the annals of warfare, on this
day in history, Jan. 27, 1943. 

The crew of the B-17 Flying Fortress Knock-out Dropper
bomber.

From London’s Heathrow Airport and Orly Airport outside Paris,
the first Concordes with commercial passengers simultaneously
take flight on January 21, 1976. The London flight was headed to
Bahrain in the Persian Gulf, and the Paris to Rio de Janeiro via
Senegal in West Africa. At their cruising speeds, the innovative Concordes flew well over the sound barrier at 1,350 miles an
hour, cutting air travel time by more than half.

On January 16, 1942, the actress Carole Lombard, famous for her
roles in such screwball comedies as My Man Godfrey and To Be
or Not to Be, and for her marriage to the actor Clark Gable, was
killed when the TWA DC-3 plane she is traveling in crashes en
route from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. She was 33.

1942

1936

On January 15, 2009, a potential disaster turned into a heroic
display of skill and composure when Captain Chesley Burnett Sullenberger III and co-pilot Jeffrey Skiles safely land the
plane they were piloting on New York City’s Hudson River
after a bird strike caused its engines to fail. David Paterson,
governor of New York at the time, dubbed the incident the
“miracle on the Hudson.”  

Sullenberger, a former Air Force fighter pilot with decades of
flying experience, received a slew of honors for his actions,
including an invitation to Barack Obama’s presidential
inauguration and resolutions of praise from the U.S.
Congress.

Captain Chesley Burnett Sullenberger III and co-pilot Jeffrey Skiles.

Chesley Burnett "Sully" Sullenberger III will
turn 73 on January 23rd. 

The incident was adapted into the feature film
Sully, directed by Clint Eastwood. It starred Tom        
Hanks as Sullenberger and Aaron Eckhart as      
Skiles. It was released by Warner Bros. on
September 9, 2016.