August 3

This Day in History

Also on This Day

Lead Story
Nautilus travels under North Pole, 1958
American Revolution
Lord Jeffrey Amherst dies, 1797
Automotive
"The Spy Who Loved Me" released, features Lotus Esprit, 1977
Civil War
Union General Thomas F. Meagher is born in Ireland, 1823
Cold War
Chambers accuses Hiss of being a communist spy, 1948
Crime
Sodomy arrest sparks controversy, 1982
Disaster
Boeing 707 crashes into a mountain near Agadir, Morocco , 1975
General Interest
Columbus sets sail, 1492
Sir Roger Casement hanged, 1916
Soviets release Mathias Rust, 1988
Hollywood
Multimillion-dollar baby photos published, 2008
Literary
Last installment of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is published, 1861
Music
"The Macarena" begins its reign atop the U.S. pop charts, 1996
Old West
Donner party encounters first delay, 1846
Presidential
Calvin Coolidge takes oath of office after Harding's death, 1923
Sports
NBA is born, 1949
Vietnam War
TV news shows Marines burning village, 1965
Marines launch Operation Prairie, 1966
World War I
Germany and France declare war on each other, 1914
World War II
Italians move on British Somaliland, 1940

Disaster

Aug 3, 1975:

Boeing 707 crashes into a mountain near Agadir, Morocco

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On this day in 1975, a chartered Boeing 707 jetliner crashes in the Atlas Mountains near Agadir, a coastal city in southern Morocco. All 188 people aboard the plane were killed, in the fourth worst air disaster to that date.

Owned by the Jordanian airline Alia and chartered to Royal Air Maroc, the 707 left LeBourget Airport in Paris at 2:20 a.m. on the morning of August 3, 1975. Apart from four Europeans, all of the passengers on board were Moroccan citizens who worked in France and were traveling home for their summer holidays. The flight disappeared from Agadir airport-control radar at 4:28 a.m.; an airport official had spoken via radio with the pilot moments earlier, with no hint of trouble. The plane was scheduled to land in Agadir just two minutes later, at 4:30 a.m., and was descending for approach in heavy fog when the right wing tip and one of the engines struck a peak at an altitude of 2,400 feet. The pilot lost control of the plane, which crashed into a ravine, exploded and burned near the small, remote village of Imzizen. All 181 passengers were killed, along with seven crewmembers.

The incident outside Agadir marked the fourth worst air disaster in history, after a Turkish DC10 that crashed March 3, 1974 north of Paris, killing all 345 passengers and crew; a U.S. military plane that went down outside Saigon on April 4, 1974, killing more than 200; and a chartered Dutch DC8 jetliner that crashed in Sri Lanka on December 4, 1971, killing 191. 

The Boeing 707 first went into service in 1958, having been developed to meet the need of airlines (particularly Pan-American) for a trans-Atlantic jetliner with a large seating capacity. With its four engines, the 707 was capable of traveling some 6,000 miles (enough to cross the Atlantic Ocean) nonstop, and boasted a seating capacity of up to 190 people. Thanks to the popularity of the 707 among international airlines, Boeing became world's biggest aircraft manufacturer, pushing aside rival Douglas Aircraft Company (later the McDonnell Douglas Corporation).

The Morocco crash of August 1975 was the second crash of a Boeing 707 to occur over the course of the 1970s; a Jordanian 707 had crashed at Nigeria's Kano Airport in January 1973, killing 176 people. After the introduction of its larger, quieter and more fuel-efficient 747 jumbo jet in January 1978, Boeing ended production of the 707. U.S. airlines sold most of their remaining 707s to Third World carriers, some of them priced as low as $1 million.

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This Week in History, Aug 3 - Aug 9

Aug 03, 1975
Boeing 707 crashes into a mountain near Agadir, Morocco
Aug 04, 1972
Philippines hit hard by flooding
Aug 05, 1948
Earthquake causes deadly landslides in Ecuador
Aug 06, 1997
Planes crashes in Guam jungle
Aug 07, 1956
Mysterious explosions in Colombia
Aug 08, 1956
Fire traps 262 miners
Aug 09, 1976
Hurricane Belle strikes Eastern Seaboard

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