Airspace violations through the years

I was reading these over on The Aviationist. I hadn't heard of these three, and found them to be very interesting.

Case #1: PB4Y-2 vs LA-11s

On April 8, 1950 a Consolidated PB4Y-2 (a patrol bomber based on the B-24 Liberator) departed from Weisbaden Air Base in Germany for a patrol over the Baltic to try to monitor Soviet submarine activity in the area.

While on the patrol, approximately 10 miles off the coast of Latvia they were intercepted by four Soviet La-11 fighters. The fighters attempted to get the PB4Y crew to follow them, using international signals, which the crew refused. The fighters shot the aircraft down, presumably killing the 10 crew members on board.

A search and rescue was immediately launched, which found no sign of the wreckage or the crew. On April 16th, the search was called off after no sign of the crew was found. But that's where the mystery starts. On April 15th, a search plane spotted an inflated raft, that showed signs of the pockets being manually opened. A second damaged raft, and a wheel with a bullet hole were also found.

Later, John Noble, who survived several years in a Soviet gulag returned with stories of someone that saw survivors from the crew. One of the pilots involved in the incident also reported that the plane caught fire after being hit, and seeing 10 parachutes come out, before the aircraft exploded.

theaviationist.com...

PB4Y-2 Privateer

La-11

Case #2: El Al Constellation vs MiG-15s

On July 27, 1955 El Al Flight 402, an L-049 Constellation, registration 4X-AKC, departed London for Tel Aviv, through Wien. They stopped at Wien-Schwecat, as scheduled. After departing, they encountered thunderstorm activity on the way to Israel.

They were following Non Directional Beacons for navigation, and believed they were over Skopje, so they made the turn as scheduled. This turned them into Bulgarian airspace, where they were intercepted at 16,000 feet, and shot down. The aircraft sustained several hits that started a fire on board, and led to the flight breaking up, killing all 58 people on board (7 crew, 51 passengers).

theaviationist.com...

Constellation L-049

MiG-15

Case #3: Libyan Arab Airlines 727 vs F-4s

On 21 Feb 1973, Libyan Arab Airlines flight 114, a Boeing 727, registration 5A-DAH, departed from Tripoli for Cairo, via Benghazi, with 113 passengers.

After departing Benghazi, the flight encountered a sandstorm that forced them to navigate by on board instruments. The Cairo VOR system and radar following was in shambles, and the crew (mostly French under an agreement between Libya and France), began to suspect they were off course. They didn't realize at the time that they were over the Sinai peninsula, which was occupied by Israel at the time, and were headed directly towards Bir Gafgafa Air Base.

Two Israeli F-4s were scrambled that intercepted the aircraft. They intercepted the flight, and attempted to get the crew to follow them. The crew, apparently decided to try to turn back and get out of Sinai airspace. The F-4 pilots fired shots at the aircraft, attempting to minimize the damage, and shot at the wingtips, damaging the flight controls.

The damage caused was worse than they expected, forcing the plane to crash land in the desert, causing an explosion in the vicinity of the right main landing gear destroying most of the airframe, and killing all but 5 on board, including the copilot.

theaviationist.com...

Boeing 727

F-4 Phantom

There is a list of airliner shoot downs on wiki - it doesn't include the PBY of course, as that wasn't an airliner - but there are a surprising number of them!

reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul


I've browsed the list without really reading it, and was shocked at how many have happened over the years.

See also the Catalina affair - 2 Swedish a/c shot down over the Baltic in 1952