Portal:Aviation/Historical anniversaries/March in aviation/March 17

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March 17

• 2005 - A judge has found millionaire Sikh businessman Ripudaman Singh Malik and sawmill worker Ajaib Singh Bagri not guilty of conspiracy and murder in the 1985 Air India bombing that killed 329 people.

• 1997 - March 17-May 28 - Linda Finch, pilot, aviation historian, and San Antonio, Texas businesswoman, flying a restored and specially equipped 62-year-old Lockheed Electra 10E, recreates the 1937 Amelia Earhart flight to circumnavigate the globe solo. Her attempt was successful, taking 73 days. She touched down in Oakland, California.

• 1976 - A Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 makes the first non-stop flight from Tokyo to New York, taking 11.5 hours for the 10,139 km (6,300 mile) journey.

• 1970 - an Eastern Air Lines Douglas DC-9 is hijacked. The hijacker is overpowered and the aircraft lands safely in Boston, although the co-pilot is killed in the struggle.

• 1958 - Air Inter commences operations

• 1923 - the US government authorises Army aircraft to drop calcium arsenate on Louisiana's cotton fields in order to kill weevils.