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- December 21st .. in celebration of Kristi's birthday we offer:
Celebrities Born on December 21st
Miscellaneous Accidents in the News on Dec. 21st
A Collection of Dec. 21st Plane Crashes
Links
- Movies, pictures and cockpit voice recordings of plane crashes.
- Chronicling the high cost of our legal system. Here is a sample of some litigation: "my seatmate was too fat", "Airline sued for $5 million over lost cat"
- www.planecrashinfo.com/
- A plane with engine problems made an emergency landing at Kansas City International Airport.
Authorities say an engine failing forced the U.S. Airways plane to make the landing around 3:40 p.m.
The plane landed without incident and everyone got off the plane safely.
There is no word on what caused the engine trouble.
Source: http://kshb.com/kshb/nw_local_news/article/0,1925,KSHB_9424_5229833,00.html -
Four people, including a 12-year-old boy, died Thursday in Concord when their small private plane struck Highway 4 and crashed onto the roadway during rainy weather while trying to make a second landing at Buchanan Field, officials said.
The crash occurred at 11 a.m. as the pilot was attempting to land at the airport, two hours after leaving Montgomery Field in San Diego, authorities said. The pilot reported being "too far off course" during the first landing attempt, officials said. No one on the ground was injured.
The identities of the dead weren't released pending notification of family. None of the victims is from the Bay Area, said Jimmy Lee, Contra Costa County sheriff's spokesman. Autopsies are scheduled for today.
Traffic was delayed throughout the day because of the crash, with motorists slowing in the rain to look at the wreckage. The two eastbound lanes of Highway 4, which abuts the airport, were closed for six hours from the Interstate 680 junction to Solano Way.
The 12-year-old boy, who was conscious when rescuers found him, later died at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek while undergoing emergency surgery, said California Highway Patrol Officer Scott Yox.
Four people were onboard the six-seat, single-engine Piper PA-46 Malibu: two women, a man and the boy.
Records show that the plane was built in 1989 and has been registered since 1999 to John Frank Mauricio, 78, a pilot who lives in Las Vegas.
"When it came in, it appeared to have made too low of an approach, and according to witnesses and evidence on the scene, it struck the freeway," Yox said.
The plane hit the ground between the east and westbound sides of the highway, tumbled across the roadway and came to rest on the south side of the eastbound lanes, less than 100 feet from Highway 4 and near a chain-link fence that borders nearby Marsh Drive. The plane went down at least 1,000 feet from the end of the runway, Yox said.
Rescue personnel from the airport and the Contra Costa County Fire Department found the plane engulfed in a raging fire, Yox said. They put out the fire, keeping it from the passenger compartment, entered the plane and removed two people: a deceased man and the boy.
Yox said the boy, who was found between the front pilot seats and the back passenger seats, was alert and conscious, but had suffered blunt-force trauma and broken bones. He was able to respond to rescuers, he said.
"He knew it was the holiday season," Yox said.
Several hours after the crash, coroner's officials removed the bodies from the scene. Debris still littered the roadway, and the smell of the plane's fuel lingered in the air. The plane was covered with a red tarp to preserve the scene.
Henry Sickels, general manager of Gibbs Flying Service, which handles between 50 and 100 departures a day at the San Diego airport, said the pilot was a regular Gibbs customer but was not based there.
"He's a frequent transient customer -- he's here often, I don't know where he comes from," Sickels said. "There was nothing abnormal about any of it. He's a normal customer and he got on the airplane and departed. Nothing was unusual."
Gary Reardon, an assistant office manager at Lithia Dodge Concord, next to the airport and Highway 4, said he was standing outside in one of the service bays with another employee when he heard an engine and looked up.
"There are always planes coming over the dealership, since we're right next to the airport," he said. "I kind of saw a plane that looked like it was coming in at a steep angle -- it was banking hard to get to one of the runways. I mentioned to the service manager, 'That guy is coming in steep' -- then the plane disappeared behind some trees, and the service manager said, 'Oh my God, it crashed!' We saw a ball of fire and black smoke."
"It was a very scary, very surreal moment."
Source: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/21/PLANE.TMP - Two walk away from light plane crash
Two men have walked away with barely a scratch after a plane landed in spectacular fashion south of Armidale, in northern New South Wales.
Police say the two were aboard a light plane on a trip from Queensland to Armidale when the pilot tried to land on a rural airstrip at Arding.
Police Inspector Warren Cotton says the plane clipped a small tree before ploughing into a small pine grove at the end of the runway.
"The impact has been taken primarily by the wings of the aircraft," he said.
"The fuselage has lodged between two pine trees, which has allowed the pilot and the other male occupant to walk away with only minor injuries."
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200612/s1816041.htm - Investigators have found a crack in the wing that broke off a seaplane before it plunged into waters off Miami's South Beach, killing 20 people. The crack was near where the right wing connects with the fuselage, said Mark Rosenker, acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.
A number of factors can cause such fractures, he said. "Simple age, I don't think, would do it. You must have stress as part of it."
Investigators have begun interviewing employees of Chalk's Ocean Airways, and they also have begun reviewing the 58-year-old seaplane's maintenance and flight records, Rosenker said.
Rosenker said the FAA and Chalk's -- the owner of the seaplane -- had been informed of the development. Chalk's said it had voluntarily grounded its entire fleet of the Grumman G-73 Mallards.
Only " a very sophisticated type of test" would have revealed the incipient fracture prior to the wing's catastrophic failure, Rosenker said. "I understand they're beginning to do that now on one of their aircraft".
Meanwhile, the wing will be sent to the NTSB lab in Washington for further examination and analysis, he said.
The right wing was retrieved from the ocean Tuesday, and the engine and propeller were still attached to it, Rosenker said.
A crane aboard a barge pulled the mangled fuselage from about 35 feet of water. TAt least 80 percent of the aircraft was removed from the water, loaded onto a barge and taken to a secure location for study.
The cockpit voice recorder -- which appears to be in good condition -- also was found, Rosenker said. It has been taken to NTSB headquarters in Washington, where it will be treated, dried and read during the afternoon, he said. The plane was not equipped with a flight data recorder.
Amateur video obtained by CNN showed the fuselage slam into the water Monday afternoon, followed by the wing falling through the sky on fire and leaving a trail of black smoke.
Eighteen passengers, including three toddlers, and two crew members were aboard the plane. It was en route to the Bahamian island of Bimini when it crashed shortly after takeoff. (Map)
Rosenker said 17 of the 20 people aboard have been identified.
Family members of the victims have begun arriving in Miami to claim their relatives' bodies and to meet with investigators.
One man, Leonard Stuart of Bimini, said he lost 11 relatives in the crash.
"I think I'm a little strong at this stage," he said."I will probably break down later as we get nearer to the funeral time."
Among the crash victims were Sergio Danguillecourt -- a member of the board of directors of Bacardi Ltd. and a great-great grandson of the company's founder, Don Facundo Bacardi -- and his wife, Jacqueline Kriz Danguillecourt, the company said Tuesday.
Danguillecourt, 42, and his wife lived in Miami.
The Grumman G-73, built in 1947, was retrofitted in the mid-1980s, Rosenker said.
Chalk's Web site says the "modernization" that took place in the 1980s included "converting the piston-engine aircraft to Pratt & Whitney PT6 turboprop engines, as well as complete avionics upgrade." - Randy Landsberg is once again journeying to the South Pole.
Why is his last entry in the travel log entered on December 21, 2001 as he was waiting for a plane from the South Pole? "We finally made it to Christchurch, and most of us are heading out today. Our flight arrived at 4:30 AM and most of us are planning to fly out this afternoon for our destinations."
" I will leave Auckland at 7:15 PM Friday December 21, 2001 and arrive in Chicago - if everything goes right - at about 7:40 PM on Friday December 21, 2001, after many hours of travel and a trip " Last modified Friday, 21-Dec-2001 10:12:52 CST
Source: http://astro.uchicago.edu/cara/southpole.edu/nov2001/log20011221.html - A Pan Am jumbo jet with 258 passengers on board has crashed on to the town
of Lockerbie near the Scottish borders. Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie,
Scotland, killing 270 people. What happened to the plane? Why would someone
plant a bomb on Flight 103? Why did it take eleven years to have a trial?
On the eve of December 21, 1988 an American civil aircraft Boeing 747-121 was on its way from Frankfurt via London towards New York at flight level 310 (31000 feet), when it suddenly and violently blew up into several fragments. The plane, or rather pieces of it, were scattered on the ground around the Scottish city of Lockerbie, Scotland, one large part of the plane crashed directly onto residental buildings in the city.
of Pan Am Flight 103 which crashed at Lockerbie, Scotland after a bomb, planted by Libyan terrorists, exploded in the forward cargo area. All 259 aboard including 11 on the ground were killed. The aircraft was named Maid of the Seas. - SANTIAGO, Chile -- A man and woman whose helicopter crashed in Antarctica
as they attempted a record-setting flight from the North Pole to the South Pole
were treated for their injuries Sunday at a southern Chile clinic. A British
rescue team from the Falkland Islands flew Jennifer Murray, 63, and Colin Bodill,
53, to Punta Arenas on Saturday, a day after their Bell 407 helicopter crashed.
Read the Diary of these two Pilots as the journey for a World Record continues!
-- Helicopter explorers Jennifer Murray and Colin Bodill are in hospital in the Chilean city of Punta Arenas following a 17-hour rescue mission to retrieve them from the site where they crashed in Antarctica.
Both pilots were taken straight to hospital when they landed in Punta Arenas at 17.50 hours Saturday night (14.50 local). Colin Bodill sustained injuries typical of those received in high-impact crashes. He is undergoing a thorough medical assessment but is lucid, conscious and stable. Jennifer Murray has dislocated an elbow, not broken an arm as was first feared.
Despite his injuries, it is understood that Colin braved the bitter cold to get Jennifer out of the helicopter following the accident and put her into a sleeping bag. He then erected a tent for shelter and lit a stove for warmth before collapsing because of his injuries.
The duo were picked up in a Twin Otter aircraft around three-and-a-half hours after the accident by the Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions rescue team before being taken back to the team’s Patriot Hills base camp. Jennifer and Colin waited at Patriot Hills for the rescue team’s Ilyushin 76 TD aircraft to make the five-hour trip from Punta Arenas and transport the pilots back to the Chilean city’s hospital.
The plane touched down on the Patriot Hills "blue ice" landing strip at 12.49 hours UK time (09.49am local) and turned round within an hour to transport the pilots on the last leg of their 17-hour ordeal, accompanied by a doctor, to Punta Arenas.
The helicopter accident happened at 1.00am UK time (10.00pm local) on Saturday morning, 120 miles north of Patriot Hills on the northern section of the Ronne Ice Shelf, as the pilots flew towards South America on the latest stage of the Polar First Challenge: an attempt to fly a helicopter around the world from pole to pole that reached the South Pole last Wednesday but has ended one-third of the way through. The pilots used the helicopter’s on-board flight-tracking equipment and a satellite phone to alert the rescue team at Patriot Hills to their plight.
Jennifer and Colin arrived at the South Pole last Wednesday in their Bell 407 helicopter, on the 100th anniversary of the first powered flight by the Wright brothers. The Polar First Challenge 2003 lifted off from New York on October 22nd, 2003. Its aim was to break the pole to pole record and raise awareness and funds for the conservation organisation WWF. Last Saturday, Jennifer met her businessman husband Simon Murray, who is bidding to become the oldest man to walk 850 miles overland to the South Pole unsupported. He is accompanied on his trip by Arctic explorer Pen Hadow.
Jennifer Murray, who set the world record for the fastest female solo helicopter flight around the world in 2000, together with co-pilot Colin Bodill, flew down the east coast of the U.S., through Central and Southern America, down to the South Pole. They were in the process of starting their journey up to the North Pole via the west coast of the Americas and Canada, with a view to ending up in New York in mid-April 2004, when the accident happened. Jennifer and Colin planned to make over 160 stops on the journey to highlight the work of the WWF, flying scientists to key conservation sites, undertaking mapping and zoning of uncharted territory, tracking illegal destruction of natural resources and following endangered species.
The crash came one-third of the way through Jennifer and Colin’s attempt to break a world record by flying around the world pole to pole in a helicopter. The Polar First Challenge team still intends to submit a claim for the speed record for flying from New York to the South Pole in a helicopter. - An American Airlines plane carrying about 150 people was reported missing Wednesday night near the southwestern Colombian city of Cali. Residents told local radio they heard a large explosion in the mountains outside Cali. The plane was flying over the town of Buga, near Cali, when it lost radio contact, officials said. The crash site was located in a rugged section of the San Jose mountains, about 40 miles from Cali, Columbia. Darkness, the remote location, and fear of leftist guerrillas that frequent that area, reportedly delayed rescue efforts for some period of time. ERRI (Emergency Response & Research Institute) analysts say that there are far more questions than answers at this point in the investigation, but that concerns are being raised about the fact that this crash occurred within hours of the anniversary of the deadly Lockerbie, Scotland crash of Pan Am Flight 103, that took the lives of 270 people. Source: http://www.emergency.com/calicrsh.htm
- (AP) -- An American Airlines jetliner carrying 164 people from Miami crashed in the Andes Mountains on its final approach to the southwestern Colombian city of Cali. Rescuers who reached the scene today said there were no survivors. The cause of the crash, which happened Wednesday evening in an active rebel area, was not known.
- British Overseas Airways, British Overseas Airways, all 5 passengers and
crew aboard perished as the plane plunged into the sea.
B-17 Flying Fortress -- US Army Bomber Crashes Near Hill City
December 21, 1939
condensed from Hill City Times, A Martin B-10B twin motor bomber on a mission from Lowry Field, Denver, crashed into a wheat field on the E. Z. McCubbin farm 15 miles northwest of Hill City around 4:30p.m. on December 18, 1939.
Sgt. Kenneth Seaman of Scranton, Pennsylvania, was killed when his parachute failed to open. Lt. J. O. Neal and Pvt. H. F. Zielinski parachuted to safety on the Fred White farm, about 3 miles from the crash site.
The pilot, Lt. H. L. Neely, brought the plane down in a belly landing at 70 mph on impact, leaving a 125-yard-long trench before coming to a stop. Although the underside of the plane was severely damaged, much of the plane was still intact. Lt. Neely was cited for bravery in staying with his plane through the landing.
Lt. Neely reported switching fuel tanks immediately before both engines stalled. There was no fuel in the engines at the crash site. - A Taiwan TransAsia Airways’ cargo plane crashed into the sea near Makung
Airport, Penghu County, on December 21. Rescue teams found small pieces of the
wreckage in water 27.4 km off Makun.
Makung is the county seat of Penghu, in Taiwan Province, Republic of China. Makung is on the western part of the main Pescadores island. - New York Times -- A grief-filled year intensified for South Carolina coach
Lou Holtz on Sunday as his pilot and friend, Dewey Foster, died in a plane crash
near Beaufort, S.C., during the coach's recruiting trip. Foster was to have
picked up Holtz on Sunday night at the Lady's Island airport.
Pilot Dewey "Sonny" Foster, died when his plane crashed in a misty rain four miles short of a runway near Beaufort.
Holtz had flown from Moncks Corner, between Charleston and Columbia, to the Beaufort area on the King Air turboprop earlier Sunday. It crashed after refueling in Hilton Head Island, going down in a wooded, isolated part of Oak Island not far from the Lady's Island airport. Foster died in the fiery wreck. Co-pilot Joe Baier was taken to Beaufort Medical Center for shoulder surgery. -
Two central peninsula men are presumed dead after an Everts Air Fuel plane crashed
north of Tuxedni Bay on the west side of Cook Inlet Wednesday.
Pilot Jim Munson, 44, of North Kenai, and co-pilot Fletcher Machen, 33, of Soldotna, were the only two aboard the plane, according to Alaska State Troopers. The plane, a Curtiss C-46 Commando, is a World War II-era, piston-powered military transport converted for use as a bulk fuel carrier.
Everts pilot Les Bradley said the Kenai-based plane delivered a load of fuel to the village of Nondalton, just north of Lake Iliamna, about 130 miles southwest of Kenai, and failed to return at its scheduled time.
According to the troopers, the wreckage was spotted from the air around 1:22 p.m. Thursday, at the 2,800 foot level of an "extremely steep" ridgeline due south of Mount Redoubt.
Two Air National Guard pararescue personnel were lowered to the crash site and, after an hour's search, found no indication of survivors, according to Staff Sgt. Jeff Wells at the Rescue Coordination Center in Anchorage.
Wells said the 210th Rescue Squadron was joined by Civil Air Patrol pilots and others from Kenai who volunteered to help.
"There were rugged peaks of 3,500 to 4,000 feet all around," said CAP pilot Henry Knackstedt, who took part in the search. "Basically the foothills of Redoubt."
National Transportatio in Safety Board officials and troopers will travel to the crash site Friday, along with avalanche control experts, to recover the bodies and investigate the crash site. - Federal law enforcement officials have determined that a man who tried to
light his shoes on fire before being subdued by passengers aboard a flight from
Paris to Miami on Saturday had explosives in his sneakers. He was charged yesterday
with interfering with flight attendants, a felony.
U.S. government officials said they believe the man, whom they identified as a British citizen named Richard C. Reid, 28, was acting alone and may have been mentally unstable when he caused the commotion on the American Airlines flight with 197 passengers and crew on board. But government officials said they may yet conclude he was acting at the behest of a terrorist group, and that they still are not certain of his identity.
The British Foreign Office, which issued him a passport in the name Richard Colvin Reid on Dec. 7 in Belgium, said they believe that is his name and that the passport is valid, a view essentially backed by U.S. officials yesterday.
But French police identified the suspect on the flight, which was diverted to Boston, as a Sri Lankan named Tariq Raja, adding that he has also used the name Abdel Rahim. Citing official sources in Paris, French media reported that the suspect had tried to board the same flight on Friday and had been stopped by police, apparently because of skepticism about the validity of his passport. - Two people died yesterday when their light aircraft nose-dived into an empty
paddock within a few hundred metres of vineyard workers near Drysdale on the
Bellarine Peninsula.
- Following the crash of AA 587 a second attempt was made to bomb another
American Airlines flight on the anniversary in the Gregorian calendar of the
bombing of PA 103 when Richard Reid was denied boarding to AA 63 on December
21, 2001.
FBI agents are investigating the possibility that the shoe bomber Richard Reid was trying to mark the anniversary of the Lockerbie bombing with a suicide attack. He first tried to board a Paris to Miami flight on Friday, Dec 21, the 13th anniversary of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 people in 1988. But it was not until 24 hours later that he managed to get a flight on the American Airlines service carrying 197 people. The 28-year-old Briton tried to bring down the airliner with a highly volatile explosive that could have gone off at any time, a Boston court heard yesterday. His attempt to detonate the device was foiled by the alertness of an air hostess and the prompt action of several passengers. Reid, who converted to Islam while in prison in London, was remanded in custody on charges of intimidation or assault of a flight crew member. - An American Airlines jetliner bound from Miami to Cali crashed in the Andes Mountains. Radio reports from Colombia say that all 156 passengers
and the crew of eight aboard Flight 965 were killed.
"We saw when the plane crashed against a mountain and then a huge fireball erupted," Carlos Buitrago said. Rescue operations were slow getting to the site, officials said, because of darkness and the mountainous terrain. Additionally, a Buga police spokesman said the area was a "hot zone" for leftist guerrillas. The plane carried 151 passengers and an eight-person crew. - British European Airways -- The plane assumed an extremely steep climbing angle, stalled and crashed during takeoff. One of three screws on the captain's horizon indicator worked its way loose and blocked the pointer on the dial indicating an incorrect pitch. Twenty-seven of 34 aboard were killed. http://www.planecrashinfo.com/unusual.htm
- While attempting a second landing in high winds, during a storm, the aircraft's wing tip hit the runway resulting in the aircraft departing the runway and causing a fuel tank to explode. The high rate of descent in the final phase of the approach and the landing made on the right landing gear which exceeded the structural limitations of the aircraft. The crosswind, which exceeded the aircrafts limits and which occurred in the final phase of the approach and during landing. The combination of both factors caused stresses which exceeded the structural limitations of the aircraft. Fifty-six out of 340 aboard killed. http://planecrashinfo.com/cvr921221.htm
- A Ceskoslovenske Aerolinie flight enroute to Rome - Athens carrying 23 passengers:19 crew:4), Crashed in the Taigetos Mountains. No Survivors. http://planecrashinfo.com/1948/1948-53.htm
- A China National Aviation Corporation flight carrying 33 )passengers:29 crew:4) crashed on Balsalt Island while attempting a visual approach through clouds. Pilot error. No Survivors. Quentin Roosevelt, son of Teddy Roosevelt killed. http://planecrashinfo.com/1948/1948-54.htm
- An Air Ceylon flight enroute to Jaffna - Trichinopoly carrying 21 (passengers:18 crew:3) crashed while attempting to land. No fatalities. http://planecrashinfo.com/1949/1949-56.htm
- A Syrian Airways flight carrying 15 had 9 fatalities when it crashed on this day. No information available. http://planecrashinfo.com/1953/1953-53.htm
- Route - Miami - Jacksonville. The plane crashed while on approach and during an attempted go-around. The crew allowed the aircraft to deviate to the left of course and descent below the glide path for reasons unknown. The crew encountered local fog and restricted visibility during the final approach of an ILS approach and missed approach procedure came too late to prevent the aircraft from descending into the ground. Fatalities included all 17 (passengers:12 crew:5). http://planecrashinfo.com/1955/1955-41.htm
- The filing deadline was Dec. 21. Feinberg's office has received compensation
claims from 2,908 of the 2,976 families that lost someone when hijacked jets
crashed at the Trade Center, at the Pentagon and near Shanksville, Pa. Feinberg
says he expects the fund to pay out $2 billion to $3 billion. The payments have
averaged $1.8 million each.
At the root of most of the family disputes: Only about 25% of those who died left a will, which generally controls distribution of an estate's funds. Without a will, only Vermont, Hawaii and California gave inheritance rights to same-sex partners at the time of the attacks. Heterosexual domestic partners could inherit the property of a will-less decedent in Hawaii and Massachusetts, and in California with some limits.When a family can't agree on who should share in the money, Feinberg deposits a sum in probate courts and lets judges sort it out under state laws. http://www.911lawhelp.org/info/news/usatoday.htm - Transportes Aereos del Caribe. The aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff due to a bomb explosion. No survivors, 70 fatalities.Source: http://www.airdisaster.com
- ... The first flight of the General Dynamics F-111 occurred on Dec. 21, 1964. ... It was the world's first supersonic fighterbomber with a sweep wint, a configuration that provides aerodynamic efficiency from the slowest to the fastest operating speeds. www.lmaeronautics.com
- Bright teardrop-shaped light apparently rising from jungle floor filmed from aircraft. [NICAP UFO Evidence, VIII]. http://www.nicap.org/waves/1962fullrep.htm
- Frontier Airlines plane crashed enroute to Denver, CO. during landing in the final approach. Fire after impact. REMARKS- CREW FAILED TO MONITOR ALTITUDE PROPERLY. HIT 4061 FT short of runway. No Fatalies. http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=36&key=0.
- Corsair crashed 10 miles east of Mojave Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS). http://www.qnet.com/~carcomm/a.htm
- Beech AT11 and Vultee BT13 mid-air northeast for Littlerock. http://www.qnet.com/~carcomm/a.htm
- A pilot named Foote in a DD-511 performed a Suicide Plane Crash. He died, plane was merely damaged. http://www.destroyers.org/LD-Images/LD-Chron09.htm
- The plane had received severe battle damage during the War and the crew was testing the repairs. An engine exploded and caused the explosion. All 4 engines quit and the plane crashed. Fires started in the plane and shells exploded. No fatalities. www.44thbombgroup.com, www.greenharbor.com/ROHPDF/ROHD43.pdf
- Anyone who can fly an ordinary airplane can, with little additional instruction,
fly an autogiro. But the reverse is not true. If a 'giro-trained pilot should
go up in an airplane, throttle down the engine and pull back on the control-stick,
as he may safely do in a 'giro, he would have his first—possibly his last—experi-ence
with a tailspin. An attempt to land vertically as in a 'giro would be similarly
disastrous. Yet heretofore a student who passed his first Department of Commerce
tests in a 'giro was given an ordinary private pilot's license which entitled
him to fly any licensed aircraft.
Last week it was revealed that the Department of Commerce has created a new license for autogiro pilots, qualifying the holder to fly autogiros only. Hereafter, for a full private license the student must perform in a conventional plane. Holders of limited commercial and transport licenses may qualify for special autogiro ratings, just as they must qualify to fly each class of airplane. - The slaughter of Captain Fetterman and 79 of his men by Sioux warriors in 1866. As the Indians swarmed in for their final assault, Fetterman and his second in command ,Captain Fred Brown, stood up, and placed their pistols at the side of each other’s head. They fired simultaneously. So ended William Fetterman’s proud boast to be able to ride through the entire Sioux nation. Source: http://nv.essortment.com/fettermanmassa_rfkt.htm
- The Netherlands experienced several floods this year. This caused dike breaks along the Maas. As a result the mouth of the Oude Rijn at Katwijk, which was already almost entirely silted up, was entirely closed by sediment carried around by the flood. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floods_in_the_Netherlands
- The Soviet Union formally ceased to exist and was dissolved into Russia and fourteen other independent countries. The U.S. supported the change and pledged to extend as much help as possible to the new Russian state under Boris Yeltsin.
- The passenger ferry Doña Paz sinks after colliding with the oil tanker Vector
1 in the Tablas Strait in the Philippines, killing 1,565. was a passenger ferry
that sank after colliding with the oil tanker Vector on December 21, 1987.
The Doña Paz was en route from Tacloban City, Philippines on the island of Leyte, to Manila, when, while it was in the Tablas Strait, between islands of Mindoro and Tablas, it collided with the small oil tanker, Vector, which was carrying 8,800 barrels of petroleum products.
The contents ignited and caused a fire that rapidly spread onto the Doña Paz. Of the 13 crew members aboard the Vector, 2 survived but all 58 crew of the Doña Paz died. The Doña Paz sank within minutes and the death toll on the ferry is officially at 1,565, although some reports claim that the ferry was overcrowded and that the true death toll is over 4,000. The ships only would put the death toll at 4,375 although admitting that only 1,568 were on the manifest (still more than the licensed maximum of 1,518). The 21 (or 24) survivors from the ferry had to swim underwater to escape the flames, as no lifeboats had a chance to be launched.
Later an inquiry revealed that the crew of the Vector was underqualified and that the boat's license had expired.
It has been the worst ferry disaster and the worst peace-time maritime disaster in history. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_21 - Jim Wilhite, Vice chair of Arkla with ties to Clinton and Mack McLarty. Wilhite was an associate of Mack McClarty's former firm.
- Earthquake in South Japan, kills 1,086
- All Reggie Barnnett wanted to do was cut down a tree behind his girlfriend’s
house. It was the kind of good deed that might be expected of the 47-year-old
associate pastor at Hines Memorial Church, who also helped out with the church’s
youth group. Instead, the uncooperative tree crushed him and started a fire
that burned him beyond recognition.
Reggie had borrowed his father’s pickup truck, apparently in the belief that he could yank out the bottom of the tree, which would then fall away from the truck. He tied the truck to the tree and floored the accelerator. The tree toppled onto the truck, crushing the cab and trapping Reggie. The still-running engine eventually overheated, starting a grass fire. The flames ignited the truck’s gas tank, turning the truck into a fireball. Police said Reggie was probably dead before the truck caught fire. - An overloaded farm vehicle flipped in southern China, killing 32 people and
injuring six, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Monday.
The accident occurred Sunday near Lianzhou, a city in Guangdong province, Xinhua said. The unlicensed vehicle was carrying 38 passengers when it flipped over while making a turn, it said.
The cause of the accident was under investigation. Government officials and traffic police did not know what type of vehicle was involved.
China's roads are among the world's deadliest, with most accidents caused by exhausted drivers, unsafe driving and poorly maintained roads and vehicles. Government figures reported last month by state media said more than 100,000 people died in traffic accidents in China last year. This year, nearly 76,000 had died by November. - A 24-year-old snowmobiler was killed when his sled fell through an ice-covered
pond, authorities said.
Leland Dorsey III, of Jamestown, was submerged in icy water for about 45 minutes. He died at a hospital.
Dorsey and a friend drove over a pond Friday night in the town of Ellery, 55 miles south of Buffalo, when the ice suddenly cracked. The friend managed to escape, but Dorsey remained under water.
The Chautauqua County coroner's office ruled Dorsey's death an accident.
In a separate accident, a 20-year-old man died after his snowmobile hit a wire pasture fence in a field in central New York.
Darren Masker, of Stockbridge, died at the scene Thursday, but his body was not found until a day later, state police said.
The accident is under investigation. - Frank Zappa (1940), American singer, guitarist and composer
- Jane Fonda (1937), American actress and activist
- Chris Evert (1954), American tennis player
- Florence Griffith Joyner (1959), American sprinter, Olympic gold medalist and 100 m & 200 m world record holder
- Andy Dick (1965, American actor, stand-up comedian
- Jane Kaczmarek (1955), American actress
- Ray Romano (1957), American comedian and actor
- Kiefer Sutherland (1966), British-born Canadian actor
- Samuel L. Jackson (1948), American actor
- Joseph Stalin (1879), Leader of the Russian Communist Party from 1928 to 1953
- Khrystyne Haje (1968), American actress
- Joe Paterno (1926), American Football coach
- Paul Winchell (1922), American ventriloquist (voice of Tigger and Dick Dastardly)
- Phil Donahue (1935), American talk show host
- Jack Noseworthy (1969)
- Carl Wilson (1946), American singer and guitarist (The Beach Boys)
- Donald Regan (1918), White House Chief of Staff and United States Secretary of the Treasury
- Kurt Waldheim (1918), Austrian United Nations Secretary-General and Federal President of Austria
- Hu Jintao (1942), President of the People's Republic of China
- Vampira (Maila Nurmi) (1921), Finnish-born actress
- Laura Dewey Bridgman (1829), in her lifetime, Laura Bridgman was said to be one of the most recognized women in the world. When reports about Helen Keller first surfaced, she was referred to as “the second Laura Bridgman.
- SYDNEY, Australia -- Russell Crowe, star of "A Beautiful
Mind," now is the father of a beautiful child.
Crowe's wife, Danielle Spencer, gave birth to a baby boy, his publicist said Monday.
Charles Spencer Crowe was born Sunday night, weighing 6 pounds 2 ounces, Crowe's Australian publicist Wendy Day told Australian Associated Press.
"He's a healthy, bouncing baby boy looking forward to Christmas," Day said.
Crowe married Spencer, a 32-year-old singer, April 7 at his sprawling rural property of Nana Glen near the east Australian beach resort town of Coffs Harbour. - No reason to include this .. it just caught my attention!
- Plymouth Colony: William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims land on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
- The film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is premiered at the Carthay Circle Theater in Los Angeles. http://thisdayindisneyhistory.homestead.com/Dec21.html
- - Doomsday - Apocalypse - End of the World tackles the Doomsday Question posed by the Mayan Myth
- astrology theory
- and the Singularity of Dec. 21, 2012
- After years of considering data from varied fields such as astronomy, ethnography, archeology and iconography, J. Eric S. Thompson determined that 0.0.0.0.0 correponded to the Julian date 584283, which equals August 11th, 3114 B.C. in our Gregorian calendar. This means that the end date of 13.0.0.0.0, some 5125 years later, is December 21st, 2012 A.D.1
- One of the items discussed is a Reference to a paper by William R. Polk of the Policy Planning Council entitled "The Palestine Problem: The Next Phase." Similar issues to today!
- When Soyuz TM-4 launched on December 21, 1987, it had three male cosmonauts aboard. Vladimir Titov (born 1947) was a pilot in the Soviet air force; he was a space veteran with one mission already under his belt. Musa Manarov (born 1951) was a civilian engineer making his first trip into space. Finally, Anatoly Levchenko (1941-1988) was an experienced test pilot on his first major space mission.
The Soyuz spacecraft linked up with the still-young Mir space station, which already had two cosmonauts aboard. After a few days, those two cosmonauts headed back to Earth with Levchenko piloting them. (He died of a brain tumor eight months later.) Titov and Manarov settled in for a long stay aboard Mir.
They had a lot of work to do. Titov and Manarov performed spacewalks and difficult repairs. They conducted scientific experiments. Also, they hosted three other sets of cosmonauts who stayed aboard Mir. The pair could only shower once a month, and they had to wear each set of underwear for an entire week.
Finally, on December 21, 1988 -- one year and several hours after their launch -- Titov and Manarov came back down to Earth. They beat the previous record for space endurance by more than a month. Source: - Click here, if you really haven't had enough 12/21 trivia
- Submissions may be sent to:
2006 Plane Crashes
Plane makes emergency landing at KCI
December 21, 2006, KANSAS CITY, Mo.
Plane crashes on highway, killing 4 on Piper PA-46 Malibu
Fresno, California, 11 a.m., Dec 21, 2006
Two walk away from light plane crash
Armidale, New South Wales, Thursday, December 21, 2006.
2005
Crack found in doomed plane's wing - Grumman G-73 Mallard
Miami, Florida, December 21, 2005
2001
South Pole Mystery
December 21, 2001
1988
PanAM Flight 103
December 21, 1988 Time:19:02:50 Lockerbie.Scotland
2003
Helicopter Crash in Anartica during Polar First Challenge
December 21, 2003, 5:57 PM EST
1995
Flight 965 American Airline Crash
December 21, 1995 Buga, Columbia
Plane Crash in the Andes Mountains
Thursday, December 21, 1995
Plane Crashes into the Sea
December 21, 1939 - Off Malta-Luqa
Plane Crash near Makung Airport
December 21, 2003
1999
Plane crash adds to Holtz's tough year
COLUMBIA, S.C., December 21, 1999
2000
Two dead in fuel plane crash in Peninsula Clarion
Tuxedni Bay, Alaska, December 21, 2000
2003
Bomb-Carrying Suspect Charged
Miami, Florida, December 21, 2003
2001
Plane Crash on the Bellarine Peninsula
Bellarine Peninsula, December 21, 2001
The Mystery of American Airlines 587
Miami,Florida, December 21, 2001
1995
American Airlines Flight 965 Jet crashes in the Andes
BOGOTA, Colombia, December 21, 1995
1961
Mechanical Error
Ankara, Turkey, December 21, 1961
1992
Martinair Holland NV, Flight 495
Faro, Algarve, Portugal, December 21, 1992
1948
Crashed in the Taigetos Mountains while en route.
Pilos, Greece, December 21, 1948
1948
Son of Teddy Roosevelt killed in Plane Crash
Basalt Island, Hong Kong, December 21, 1948 g
1949
Crashed while attempting to land
December 21, 1949 Trichinopoly, Sri Lanka
1953
Syrian Airways flight
Dah-el-Kadeeb, Syria, December 21, 1953
1955
Eastern Air Lines Flight #642
Jacksonville, Florida, December 21, 1955
Filing Deadline for September 11, 2001 Families
December 21, 2001 - isn't that ironic!!
1980
Bomb Explosion
Rio Hacha, Colombia, Dec. 21, 1980
1964
First Flight of Supersonic Fighterbomber
Dec. 21, 1964
1962
UFO and Plane
Dec. 21, 1962; Angel Falls, Venezuela
Convair crashed
Dec. 21, 1962 Time: 2030 GRAND ISLAND, NE
1944
Corsair crashed Southern California
Dec. 21, 1944
Beech AT11 and Vultee BT13 mid-air crash
Dec. 21, 1944
1944
Suicide Plane Crash
December 21, 1944 Sulu Sea
1943
Group Practice Formation - Test Hop, A Pilot's Account from WWII
December 21. 1943 West Bradenham, England
1931
TIME Magazine Archive Article -- 'Giro Pilots --
Dec. 21, 1931
Sioux Warriors Slaughter Troops in Massacre
December 21, 1866 Nevada
Mine Disaster
December 21, 1951 West Frankfort, Illinois
Mine shaft 'Orient No. 2'in West Frankfort, Illinois. Explosion 119 dead. Individual Bureau of Mines, MESA, and MSHA accident investigation reports. Source: http://www.msha.gov/mshainfo/factsheets/mshafct8.htmFlood
December 21, 1163 Holland
The Soviet Union is Gone
December 21, 1991 Russia
Ferry Collides and Sinks
December 21, 1987
Skiing Accident
December 21, 1992
Earthquake
21 December 1946, South Japan
Falling Tree Incident
21 December 2004, Albany, Georgia
Farm Vehicle Fiasco
December 21, 2003, 9:15 PM EST - Beijing, China
Snowmobiles
December 21, 2003, 10:44 AM EST - ELLERY, N.Y.
Celebrity Births
Celebrities Born On December 21st
Birth: 12/21/2003 Russell Crowe - Son
Kichwa Tembo - Masai Mara - Balloon Safari
Tuesday, December 21, 1999
Piligrims land on Plymouth Rock
December 21,1620 Plymouth, Massachusetts
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
December 21,1937
Links for The Mayan Prophecy of 2012
December 12, 2012 Predictions and Theories
Dec. 21, 1962 -- Kennedy is President
Here are some documents from that day in History
Soviet Launches Spacecraft
December 21, 1987 - December 21, 1988
Links
Submissions Welcome!
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