FAA History Lesson -- September 10

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

”Sep 10, 1976: A British Airways Trident and a Yugoslav DC-9 collided over Zagreb, Yugoslavia, killing all 176 occupants of the two airplanes, a higher toll than in any previous civil midair collision. In May 1977, a Yugoslav court sentenced an air traffic controller to 7 years in prison for negligence in handling the two aircraft, the first known criminal prosecution of a civilian controller for negligent performance of duties.”

Evidently, September isn’t a very good month for air traffic control. I didn’t plan to run two midair collision stories back to back -- it just happened that way. Sometimes, I do have a choice as to what to publish for a certain date in history. That doesn’t mean it’s always a pleasant choice. For instance, look at this other entry for today and think about tomorrow’s date.

”Sep 10, 1960: The Department of Defense conducted Operation Sky-Shield, a giant air defense drill, which necessitated the grounding of all commercial and general aviation aircraft throughout the North American continent for a six-hour period. “

Don Brown
September 10, 2007