In the first flight of its kind, American aviatrix Amelia Earhart
departed Wheeler Field in Honolulu, Hawaii, on a solo flight
to North America. Hawaiian commercial interests offered a
$10,000 award to whoever accomplished the flight first.
The next day, after traveling 2,400 miles in 18 hours, she
safely landed at Oakland Airport in Oakland, California.
The Pacific Clipper (Boeing 314) arrives at LaGuardia.
On January 6, 1942, the Pacific Clipper landed at Pan American’s LaGuardia Field seaplane base in New York City, completing the
first commercial plane flight to circumnavigate the world.
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)
Malburn Adair “Buddy” McBroom (1926 – 2004)
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)
After nine days and four minutes in the sky, the experimental
aircraft Voyager landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California, completing the first nonstop flight around the globe on one load
of fuel.
Piloted by Americans Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, Voyager was
made mostly of plastic and stiffened paper and carried more than
three times its weight in fuel when it took off from Edwards Air
Force Base on December 14. By the time it returned, after flying
25,012 miles around the planet, it had just five gallons of fuel left
in its remaining operational fuel tank.
The crew: Dick Rutan and friend Jeanna Yeager.
(no relation to aviator Chuck Yeager)
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in
Washington DC.
On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 from London to
New York exploded in midair over Lockerbie, Scotland,
killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members aboard,
as well as 11 Lockerbie residents on the ground.
A bomb hidden inside an audio cassette player detonated
in the cargo area when the plane was at an altitude of 31,000
feet.
The disaster, which became the subject of Britain’s largest
criminal investigation, was believed to be an attack against
the United States. One hundred eighty nine of the victims
were American.
