A British Army helicopter was destroyed in a friendly fire incident during the Falklands War, killing its four occupants. In the early hours of 6 June 1982, the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Cardiff was looking for aircraft supplying the Argentine forces on the Falkland Islands. An Army Air Corps Gazelle helicopter (example pictured) was making a routine delivery to British troops on East Falkland. Cardiff's crew assumed it was hostile, given its speed and course, and fired two missiles, destroying it. When the wreckage was found, the loss was attributed to enemy fire. Although Cardiff was suspected, scientific tests on the wreckage were inconclusive. No formal inquiry was held until four years later. Defending their claim that the helicopter had been lost in action, the UK Ministry of Defence stated that they had not wanted to upset relatives while they were still trying to ascertain how the Gazelle had been shot down. The board of inquiry did not blame any individuals but identified factors including a lack of communication between the army and the navy and the army's decision to turn off helicopters' identification friend or foe transmitters.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_British_Army_Gazelle_friendly_fire_incident
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1724:
Philip V, the first Bourbon ruler of Spain, abdicated the throne to his eldest son Louis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_V_of_Spain
1814:
Sweden and Denmark–Norway signed the Treaty of Kiel, whereby Frederick VI of Denmark ceded Norway to Sweden in return for the Swedish holdings in Pomerania. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Kiel
1907:
A 6.5 Mw earthquake struck Kingston, Jamaica, resulting in at least 800 deaths, which was at the time considered one of the world's deadliest earthquakes recorded in history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1907_Kingston_earthquake
1954:
Nash-Kelvinator and Hudson Motor Car Company merged to become American Motors in an effort to create one multibrand company capable of challenging the "Big Three" as an equal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Motors
1978:
Austrian logician Kurt Gödel (pictured), who suffered from an obsessive fear of being poisoned, died of starvation after his wife was hospitalized and unable to cook for him. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_G%C3%B6del
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
orgulous: Proud; haughty; disdainful. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/orgulous
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
The great fault of all ethics hitherto has been that they believed themselves to have to deal only with the relations of man to man. In reality, however, the question is what is his attitude to the world and all life that comes within his reach. A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him, and that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help. Only the universal ethic of the feeling of responsibility in an ever-widening sphere for all that lives — only that ethic can be founded in thought. ... The ethic of Reverence for Life, therefore, comprehends within itself everything that can be described as love, devotion, and sympathy whether in suffering, joy, or effort.   --Albert Schweitzer https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Schweitzer