FAA History Lesson -- June 18th

From the FAA Historical Chronology, 1926-1996...

”Jun 18, 1971: FAA announced a joint program with the military services designed to minimize the number of military aircraft flying under visual flight rules (VFR). The purpose of the program was to enhance the efficiency of the common civil-military airspace system and reduce the midair-collision hazard by bringing military flights under the direct control of FAA's air traffic control facilities. To the maximum extent practicable, military flights in fixed-wing aircraft would be conducted in accordance under instrument flight rules (IFR). The danger of mixing of high-speed IFR and VFR traffic had been tragically illustrated by a midair collision on June 6, 1971, near Duarte, Calif., of a DC-9 airliner and a U.S. Marine Corps F-4B. All 49 occupants of the DC-9 and one of the two occupants of the F-4B were killed. The airliner was under IFR control; the military plane was flying VFR. “

Using that date (June 6, 1971), you can jump right over to the NTSB’s “query page” and look up that accident. Or you can just go to the page that lists accidents by month and find it there. If you are so inclined.

Don Brown
June 18, 2007