On This Day in Aviation History
John Denver Dies In a Plane Crash, Boeing Delivers First 747-8 Freighter: October 12 in Aviation History
2010: Transafrik International Flight 662, a Lockheed L-100 Hercules (5X-TUC), crashes into a mountain 19 miles (31 km) east of Kabul International Airport, Afghanistan, killing all eight crew.
2010: A Eurocopter AS350 helicopter carrying a team of French researchers crashes during a blizzard in Antarctica, killing all four of them.
1997: Singer John Denver dies when his Rutan Long-EZ (N555JD) kit plane crashes into the Pacific Ocean off the central California coast. Investigators blame the crash on a poorly positioned fuel tank selector switch.
1988: Air Force One encounters a near-miss with a Bar Harbor Airlines ATR-42.
1976: First flight of the Sikorsky S-72 hybrid helicopter/fixed-wing aircraft. Only two prototypes would be built.
1967: Cyprus Airways Flight 284, a de Havilland DH.106 Comet 4B (G-ARCO), breaks up and crashes into the Mediterranean Sea during a flight to Nicosia International Airport after an explosive device goes off onboard. All 66 people onboard are killed.
1964: Soviet spacecraft Voshkod 1 is launched carrying three cosmonauts, marking the first space flight to carry more than one person, the first mission carried out without spacesuits. It also sets a new altitude record of 209 miles.
1960: The Royal Canadian Air Force receives its first Lockheed CC-130 Hercules.
1954: North American Aviation chief test pilot and World War II ace George Welch is killed in the crash of a North American F-100A Super Sabre.
1907: The hot air balloon Mammouth flown by Augustus Gaudron crosses the North Sea, flying 721 miles (1,160 km) from London to Lake Vänern, Sweden.