On this day

On this day in aviation — September 15

795 notable aviation events on September 15 across history, drawn from official investigation records.

Every year on September 15, aviation history records accidents and incidents worldwide. FlightFinder surfaces 795 deduplicated entries for this calendar date from NTSB, EASA, and 70+ other official sources.

Notable events

  • September 15, 1980

    Lockheed C-130 Hercules

    Royal Saudi Air Force (القوات الجوية الملكية السعودية)

    89 fatalities

    Following a night takeoff at Madinah-Prince Mohammad Bin Abdulaziz Airport, while climbing, one of the engine caught fire and exploded. The crew was unable to attempt an emergency landing and the airplane crashed in…

  • September 15, 1974Hull loss

    Boeing 727-100

    Air Vietnam

    75 fatalities

    En route from Đà Nẵng to Saigon, while cruising at an altitude of 26,000 feet, three guys entered the cockpit and ordered the pilot to divert to Hanoi. The captain tried to explain that this was not possible and that he…

  • September 15, 1988

    Boeing 737-200

    Ethiopian Airlines · Ethiopia

    35 fatalities

    Ethiopian Airlines flight 604, a Boeing 737-200, was a scheduled service from Addis Ababa to Bahar Dar and Asmara. The first leg of the flight was uneventful. At 09:50, the engines were started normally and the airplane…

  • September 15, 1995Hull loss

    Fokker 50

    Malaysian Airlines System - MAS · Malaysia

    34 fatalities

    Flight MH2133 A Fokker 27 mark 050 bearing registration 9M-MGH was a scheduled domestic flight from Kota Kinabalu to Tawau, Sabah. The departure from Kota Kinabalu was delayed by approximately 30 minutes due to late…

  • September 15, 1945

    Douglas C-47 Skytrain (DC-3)

    United States Army Air Forces - USAAF (1941-1947)

    23 fatalities

    Shortly after a night takeoff from runway 35, the aircraft encountered problems to gain height. During the initial climb, at a height of some 30 feet, the Skytrain hit tree tops located 0.9 mile from the runway end,…

  • September 15, 1989

    De Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter

    Merpati Nusantara Airlines - MNA · Indonesia

    22 fatalities

    While approaching Bintuni Airport, the crew encountered poor weather conditions when the aircraft struck a mountain located few km from the airfield. All 22 occupants were killed.

  • September 15, 1946

    Douglas Dakota III (DC-3)

    124 (F) Sqn RCAF

    21 fatalities

  • September 15, 1951

    Timm N2T-1

    Rocky Mountain Air Shows · United States

    20 fatalities

    The Board determines that the probable cause of the accident was "the pilot's loss of control of the aircraft during an attempted slow roll closer horizontally to the spectators and at an altitude lower than specified…

See all 795 events for September 15:

Contemporaneous coverage and timeline for September 15 — Recap.at:

Data is aggregated from public investigation records and may be revised as sources are reconciled.

Primary source: https://himaxym.com/history/on-this-day

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