May 14 
Hot-air balloon enthusiast, Steve Fossett, is preparing for his sixth attempt to make the first non-stop and solo circumnavigation of the world in a helium and hot-air based balloon

Launch date is mid to late June from the previous, but unsuccessful, launch location last year - Northam in Western Australia; the News Desk report of that attempt is HERE

 May 5 
A China Northern Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD-82 passenger jet with 112 persons on board has crashed into the sea off the coast of Dalian about 500 km NE of Beijing

The captain of Flight 6136, en-route from Beijing to Dalian, reported a fire in the cabin and shortly afterwards ground control lost contact with the MD-82 airliner

Media reports indicate that the aircraft was without lights when it came down

 May 6 
A home-built Gyrocopter, flown by a 52-year-old pilot and reported missing since 1400hrs Saturday, has been located in the Burnett river

After departing the Gayndah airport it appears the owner/pilot and builder did not see a power line strung across the river and struck it while low flying down the river about 10km north-east of Gayndah

Police recovered a badly-damaged helmet and a seat from the gyrocopter near a bridge

 May 8 
An EgyptAir Boeing B737 passenger jet with 55 people on board has hit a hill while on a bad weather approach to the Tunis-Carthage airport in Tunisia

Media reports have 18 dead and 25 in hospital with the captain the only survivor from the 8 member crew

Fog, rain and high winds from the Sahara apparently created control problems on the 2^nd approach. "It was not an emergency landing, it was a normal landing approach"

 May 12 
OZ Defence Minister Senator Robert Hill was aboard an RAAF C-130 Hercules in Afghanistan that was thought to have a heat-seeking SAM fired at it

Countermeasure systems on board the Hercules automatically dispensed chaff and infrared flares that successfully distracted the suspected incoming missile


The incident occurred shortly after take-off from the Bagram air base north of Kabul