1979 47 years ago Historical Events May 30 3 sources

Downeast Airlines Flight 46 crashes on approach to Knox County Regional Airport in Rockland, Maine, killing 17.

On May 30, in the year 1979, Downeast Airlines Flight 46 crashes on approach to Knox County Regional Airport in Rockland, Maine, killing 17. This event is recorded as a Historical Events event in the history of May 30, one of 466 recorded events on this date across all of history.

Downeast Airlines Flight 46 was a scheduled airline service in the United States from Boston's Logan International Airport to Rockland, Maine, operated by Downeast Airlines. On May 30, 1979, the de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter operating the flight crashed during a nonprecision approach to Rockland's Knox County Regional Airport. All but one of the 18 people on board were killed. The cause of the accident was controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) after the failure of the flight crew to stop the aircraft's descent below the minimum descent altitude for the non-precision approach at Knox County airport. The investigation into the accident looked into the airline's corporate culture as a contributing factor to the crash; this was the first time an investigation took this approach to an air crash.

Key Facts

  • This event took place on May 30, 1979 (AD era).
  • It is categorised as a Historical Events event in recorded history.
  • Referenced in 3 Wikipedia articles.
  • The event is associated with a specific geographical location (see map below).
  • Wikipedia source last updated on 2 April 2026.

On This Date in History 466

Type Year Date Event
Notable Deaths 2025 May 30 Étienne-Émile Baulieu, French biochemist and endocrinologist (born 1926)
Notable Deaths 2025 May 30 Valerie Mahaffey, American actress (born 1953)
Notable Deaths 2025 May 30 Loretta Swit, American actress and singer (born 1937)
Notable Deaths 2025 May 30 John E
Historical Events 2024 May 30 Donald Trump is convicted of falsifying business records in his New York trial, the first time a former President of the
Notable Deaths 2024 May 30 Geneviève de Galard, French nurse (born 1925)
Notable Deaths 2024 May 30 Drew Gordon, American professional basketball player (born 1990)
Selected Events 2024 May 30 Donald Trump was convicted of falsifying business records in a New York trial, becoming the first former U
Notable Deaths 2021 May 30 Jason Dupasquier, Swiss motorcycle road racer (born 2001)
Historical Events 2020 May 30 The Crew Dragon Demo-2 launches from the Kennedy Space Center, becoming the first crewed orbital spacecraft to launch fr
Notable Deaths 2020 May 30 Michael Angelis, British actor (born 1944)
Selected Events 2020 May 30 Crew Dragon Demo-2 became the first commercial mission to the International Space Station
Notable Deaths 2019 May 30 Thad Cochran, American lawyer and politician (born 1937)
Notable Deaths 2019 May 30 Jason Marcano, Trinidadian footballer (born 1983)
Notable Deaths 2016 May 30 Tom Lysiak, Polish-Canadian ice hockey player (born 1953)
Notable Deaths 2016 May 30 Rick MacLeish, Canadian ice hockey player (born 1950)
Notable Deaths 2015 May 30 Beau Biden, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 44th Attorney General of Delaware (born 1969)
Notable Deaths 2015 May 30 Joël Champetier, Canadian author and screenwriter (born 1957)
Notable Deaths 2015 May 30 L
Notable Deaths 2014 May 30 Hienadz Buraukin, Belarusian poet, journalist, and diplomat (born 1936)
Notable Deaths 2014 May 30 Henning Carlsen, Danish director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1927)
Notable Deaths 2014 May 30 Joan Lorring, British actress (born 1926)
Notable Deaths 2014 May 30 Leonidas Vasilikopoulos, Greek admiral (born 1932)
Historical Events 2013 May 30 Nigeria passes a law banning same-sex marriage
Notable Deaths 2013 May 30 Jayalath Jayawardena, Sri Lankan physician and politician (born 1953)
Notable Deaths 2013 May 30 Larry Jones, American football player and coach (born 1933)
Historical Events 2012 May 30 Former Liberian president Charles Taylor is sentenced to 50 years in prison for his role in atrocities committed during
Notable Deaths 2012 May 30 John Fox, American comedian, actor, and screenwriter (born 1957)
Notable Deaths 2012 May 30 Andrew Huxley, English physiologist and biophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1917)
Notable Deaths 2012 May 30 Gerhard Pohl, German economist and politician (born 1937)
Notable Deaths 2012 May 30 Jack Twyman, American basketball player and sportscaster (born 1934)
Selected Events 2012 May 30 Former Liberia president Charles Taylor was sentenced to 50 years in prison for his role in atrocities committed during
Notable Deaths 2011 May 30 Isikia Savua, Fijian police officer and diplomat (born 1952)
Notable Deaths 2011 May 30 Saleem Shahzad, Pakistani journalist (born 1970)
Notable Deaths 2011 May 30 Marek Siemek, Polish philosopher and historian (born 1942)
Notable Deaths 2011 May 30 Clarice Taylor, American actress (born 1917)
Notable Deaths 2011 May 30 Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1921)
Notable Deaths 2010 May 30 Yuri Chesnokov, Russian volleyball player and coach (born 1933)
Notable Deaths 2010 May 30 Dufferin Roblin, Canadian commander and politician, 14th Premier of Manitoba (born 1917)
Notable Deaths 2009 May 30 Torsten Andersson, Swedish painter and illustrator (born 1926)
Notable Deaths 2009 May 30 Susanna Haapoja, Finnish politician (born 1966)
Notable Deaths 2009 May 30 Ephraim Katzir, Israeli biophysicist and politician, 4th President of Israel (born 1916)
Historical Events 2008 May 30 Convention on Cluster Munitions is adopted
Historical Events 2008 May 30 TACA Flight 390 overshoots the runway at Toncontín International Airport in Tegucigalpa, Honduras and crashes, killing f
Selected Events 2008 May 30 The Convention on Cluster Munitions, prohibiting the use, transfer, and stockpiling of cluster bombs, was adopted
Notable Deaths 2007 May 30 Jean-Claude Brialy, Algerian-French actor and director (born 1933)
Notable Deaths 2007 May 30 Birgit Dalland, Norwegian politician (born 1907)
Notable Deaths 2007 May 30 Gunturu Seshendra Sarma, Indian poet and critic (born 1927)
Notable Deaths 2006 May 30 Shohei Imamura, Japanese director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1926)
Notable Deaths 2006 May 30 David Lloyd, New Zealand biologist and academic (born 1938)

This article draws on content from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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