This Day in Aviation History

The following appears courtesy of NYCAviation. Some days are just historically significant.

1933: Lithuanian research aircraft Lituanica disappears mysteriously after a successful crossing of the Atlantic.

1944: Napalm incendiary bombs are used for the first time in war, dropped by American P-38 fighters on a fuel depot in France.

1975: An American Apollo capsule links up to a Russian Soyuz capsule in orbit, marking the first space collaboration between the two nations. It would also be the last Apollo mission, as well as the last manned mission for six years until the launch of the first Space Shuttle in 1981.

1989: The first flight of the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber.

1996: TWA flight 800, a Boeing 747-100 enroute to Paris, explodes and plummets into the Atlantic off the coast of Long Island shortly after takeoff from JFK Airport.

2007: TAM flight 3054, an Airbus A320 crashes while landing at Sao Paolo, Brazil.

Now, we remember the last two specifically, especially the TWA flight. It is hard to believe it has been 13 years since that happened. It was a surprising tragedy, one originally thought to be malicious, but ultimately proved t be a horrible accident.

This year has been a hard one, in terms of airline incidents. Since our hope was expressed that the last incident we reported on, the Southwest plane with the hole, which fortunately resulted in no loss of life or injury, another plane crashed. We will once again hope that we can survive the rest of this year and the year to come without serious incident.