Aviation nightmare of the 21st century: how do Western countries react to airspace violations? High-profile cases of violation of the maritime and air borders of the USSR and Russia The most famous cases of violations of the airspace of the state.
The beginning of which was the collapse of the USSR into independent states. With his disappearance, the longest war of the twentieth century, which was fought between the West and the East and was called the “Cold War,” ended. Secret military operations were carried out for 46 years, not only on land, but also at sea and in the air. The beginning of the Cold War - 1945. The goal is the struggle for world domination of the capitalist and communist superpowers.
Neither the USA nor the USSR could openly oppose each other, so the entire confrontation resulted in the Cold War.
Throughout all these years, the Americans carried out large-scale reconnaissance activities against the Soviet Union, violating air, sea and land borders. There were some provocations. It is clear that the USSR could not allow such actions to be carried out with impunity, so such provocations often ended in local battles. Mostly they were carried out in the air.
Beginning in 1945, American aircraft conducted reconnaissance of Soviet Far Eastern territories, in particular Kamchatka, the Bering Strait, Chukotka and the Kuril Islands. And there were reasons for that. The war between America and Japan in the Pacific has entered its final stage. American actions in the air sharply intensified.
Despite the fact that during the Second World War, America and the USSR were allies, this did not prevent the Americans from feeling very at ease in the airspace, quite often flying over Soviet military bases and ships. It must be remembered that, most likely, the American pilots making such flights did not think about the problems of big politics, assuming that the principles of military brotherhood were above all. However, the leadership of both countries needed reasons to start conflicts and, as you understand, they did not have to look for them for long.
At the end of May 1945, anti-aircraft artillery of the Pacific Fleet shot down two American B-24 military aircraft. The incident occurred in the Kamchatka region. Two months later, a similar situation occurred with another American P-38 aircraft, in the same area. But since the fire was not aimed at destruction, the planes did not receive any damage. But the Americans responded much harsher. In August 1945, American air force planes fired at two Soviet border boats near the island of Kamen Gavryushkin, wounding 14 and killing 8 crew members. It is quite possible to assume that American pilots mistook Soviet ships for Japanese ones, but the first victims of the Cold War have already appeared.
After the end of the war in September 1945, air border violations continued. Previously, Americans could explain such actions by carrying out operations against Japan or by mistakes.
Thus, during the period from May to September 1945, 27 cases of violations were recorded, in which 86 B-24 and B-25 aircraft were involved. From the moment of Japan's surrender until 1950, there were already 46 such provocations involving 63 aircraft. Moreover, during the period from June 27 to July 16, 1950 alone, 15 air violations were recorded.
The first air collision occurred in the Far East in the same 1945, when one of the American bombers made an emergency landing. This happened over Korean territory, near the city of Hamhung, where at that time there was a large airbase of the Soviet air force. The Americans, violating the agreement on the air corridor, flew over it, heading to Manchuria for prisoners. The air base management accepted this situation, but the commission that arrived in the city demanded that measures be taken to stop such flights. In November, one of the American planes, which was making another flight over a Soviet base, was intercepted by 4 Airacobra P-39 fighters and forced to land. When American pilots refused to comply with the demands of Soviet fighters, one of them fired at an American plane, causing an engine fire. The Americans were forced to land. None of the American crew were injured. It is noteworthy that fire was not opened on Soviet aircraft. Later the B-29 was sent to Moscow for testing.
In the post-war years, there was a violation of the borders of the Soviet Union in the north-west, from Norway and Finland. It was a little calmer in the southern cordons of the country. But here, too, air border violations occurred, mainly over the territory of Azerbaijan. In 1947, the crew of one of the provocateur aircraft was captured. Thus, from Iran, a single-engine aircraft of the air force of this state appeared. He landed near the city of Nakhichevan. The Border Patrol detained its crew. The pilots explained that they were flying to Tabriz from Tehran, but lost their orientation and therefore ended up on Soviet territory. This may have been true, but the plane belonged to Iranian intelligence, and was also armed. Also in 1947, three more cases of violations by Iranian and American aircraft were recorded in the same area.
Later, air provocations were carried out more often, and their consequences were more tragic.
There is evidence that the official first casualties of the Cold War occurred in 1950, when an American PB4Y aircraft violated Soviet airspace in the area of the Libau base in the Baltic. Alerted La-11 fighters intercepted him. But since the American pilots refused to follow the commands of the Soviet pilots, they had no choice but to open fire. The Americans responded with fire. As a result, PB4Y was shot down and fell into the sea. All 10 members of its crew were killed. It is worth noting that such American military vehicles had already appeared several times before, so the Soviet side set up an ambush. The Soviet command insisted that the B-29 was shot down, while the Americans still admitted the loss of PB4Y.
There is also information that Americans suffered losses on the Soviet borders before. For example, in 1949, an American B-25 plane was shot down over the Black Sea, which landed three paratroopers on Soviet territory, while it itself tried to escape into neutral waters. It was intercepted by two Soviet fighters and shot down. The American crew was picked up by a Soviet border boat.
Most of the evidence of air battles during the Cold War has been preserved since the 50s. It is clear that there are no accurate statistics and cannot be, but still some data even sometimes appeared in the press. Thus, according to some sources, over the 10 years since 1950, American aircraft attempted to violate Soviet airspace 81 times, from which 20 combat vehicles did not return. According to American sources, the United States began reconnaissance over Soviet territories back in 1949, using specially converted bombers. Until 1960, 17 such aircraft did not return.
Other sources speak of a different figure. Thus, during the period from 1953 to 1956 alone, Americans violated Soviet air borders 113 times.
It was not possible to avoid tragic mistakes for the Soviet side. In the summer of 1954, when another American reconnaissance aircraft appeared on radar and then went into neutral waters, its own Tu-14 plane, which was returning as part of a group from training bombing, was shot down. The entire crew of the car was killed. However, the pilot who shot down his plane was not brought to justice, since the Tu-14 was produced in a small series and therefore was little known to the main aviation units.
Like America, NATO also had a large number of reconnaissance aircraft, most of which were located in close proximity to the Soviet borders. Moreover, the CIA had its own air reconnaissance, and the military department had its own. Each of them had its own tasks, tactical and strategic.
It should also be noted that neutral states were also involved in aviation reconnaissance. Two incidents involving Swedish military aircraft that were shot down by Soviet fighters in 1952 received wide publicity in the Soviet press. The DC-3 aircraft were part of the Swedish radio intelligence unit and were equipped with the most modern equipment for listening to communications taking place on the radio over Soviet territory. Moreover, Swedish aircraft, in addition to active aerial and electronic reconnaissance of the Baltic coast, provided assistance to anti-government troops in the Baltic states.
In addition, reconnaissance aircraft from countries such as Great Britain, Iran, Germany, and Turkey also appeared near the Soviet borders. And although they appeared extremely rarely, the potential of the air forces of these states increased, which did not allow the Soviet troops to relax.
It should also be noted that American aircraft learned to harm Soviet aircraft without even crossing the borders of the Union. So, for example, when one of the Soviet batteries in the Baku area was about to fire 130-mm anti-aircraft guns, an American aircraft equipped with powerful radio electronics took off from an Iranian base and simply flew along the Soviet border, creating interference. In response to such “rudeness,” Soviet troops began to create radio interference for one of the American bases, which was located in Iran, which significantly complicated the takeoff and landing of aircraft. A week later, the “interference fight” was stopped by mutual agreement.
But if until the mid-50s, Soviet troops somehow managed to maintain the inviolability of the state’s borders, then in 1954 the last frontier collapsed. The reason for this was the advent of automatic drifting balloons (ADA) in service with Western intelligence services, which were capable of rising to great heights, thus becoming inaccessible to fighters. They were equipped with the latest reconnaissance equipment and launched from military bases in Norway, Germany, Italy, France, and Turkey. ADA could reach an altitude of up to 30 kilometers, so even the Soviet MiG-15bis, Yak-25 and MiG-17P, which operated at an altitude of up to 15 kilometers, were not able to reach them. Therefore, the balloons successfully carried out reconnaissance over almost the entire Soviet territory. The USSR air defense forces had no choice but to record their appearance.
True, some ADAs were still shot down. The first of them was destroyed in 1954 near Chernivtsi at an altitude of 10 kilometers using a MiG-17P. A few days later, Soviet pilots tried again to shoot down the balloon, but this time they failed.
The period of greatest activity of the ADA began in 1956, when in just two months about 3 thousand balloons violated Soviet borders. And over 20 years, 4112 balls were recorded, of which 793 were shot down.
In addition, the British Canberra reconnaissance aircraft and the American RB-57 and U-2 caused many problems to the Soviet air defense system. Later the RB-57F appeared. All of them operated at altitudes inaccessible to interception.
In just 5 days of July 1956, they made 5 breakthroughs into Soviet territory up to 350 kilometers deep. In the same year, the Lockheed U-2 appeared, which appeared over Moscow and Kiev, Crimea and Minsk, the Far East and the Baltics, Siberia and Central Asia. All attempts to “get” high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft were unsuccessful. And only in November 1959 the “antidote” was found. It was at this time that the S-75 Desna anti-aircraft missile system was adopted into service with the Soviet air defense system. It demonstrated its effectiveness on November 16, when an American balloon was shot down at an altitude of 28 kilometers.
The S-75 began to be used not only to protect borders, but also especially important objects on the territory of the state itself. A little later, the Su-9, fighter-interceptors with a ceiling height of 20 kilometers, also began to enter service. But their number was still not enough to provide reliable protection. So, in 1960, a Lockheed plane, taking off from Pakistan, violated the Soviet border in the Turkmenistan region and headed for Baikonur. Attempts were made to intercept it using two MiG-19s, but one of the aircraft was destroyed, so the interception did not take place. When the Lockheed returned back over the territory of Turkmenistan, two MiG-17s tried to intercept it, pursuing the reconnaissance aircraft even over Iranian territory, but to no avail.
In May 1960, they still managed to defeat U-2, but there were some casualties on the Soviet side. Near Sverdlovsk, two MiG-19s and Su-9s were alerted, but none of these fighters managed to intercept the enemy, but the missilemen dealt with this problem. True, they overdid it: in a hurry they began to fire at their own, as a result of which one MiG-19 was destroyed and the pilot died.
A major international scandal broke out, after which US President D. Eisenhower banned Lockheed flights. The silence continued for more than 2 years. At the end of August 1962, they again appeared over Soviet territory in the area of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and Chukotka.
In addition to such high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, low-altitude aircraft also appeared over Soviet territory: the RB-47 Stratojet and the RB-45C Tornado. Thus, the RB-47 repeatedly appeared over the Sea of Japan and the Caspian Sea, in the Vladivostok area. In July 1960, one of these aircraft crossed the border near Arkhangelsk. A MiG-19 was used to intercept it. As a result, the American plane was shot down, leaving only two of the 6 crew members alive.
When anti-aircraft missile systems, as well as new generation fighter-interceptors, appeared in the arsenal of the Soviet troops, high-altitude border breakthroughs ended. But this does not mean that air border violations have stopped. Long-range radar detection aircraft appeared in the arsenal of NATO countries, which could conduct reconnaissance even when outside the desired state. It was enough to be near the Soviet borders to conduct successful reconnaissance hundreds of kilometers in depth.
Very little information has been preserved about the confrontation between America and the USSR in the 60s, since strict censorship in the press was introduced by order of L. Brezhnev. Any incidents that happened on the Soviet border were classified. Therefore, the only source is the Western media. Thus, in 3 years, from 1967 to 1970, the American side violated the air borders of the Soviet Union more than 10 times. Among them is the case of the DC-8, which crossed the border near the Kuril Islands in 1968, carrying the name of 100 American soldiers. Air defense fighters were sent to intercept. After conducting an investigation and establishing the circumstances, the plane itself, the soldiers, and the crew were handed over to the American government.
At the end of May 1978, a Soviet Tu-16R aircraft from the Northern Fleet Air Force disappeared in the waters of the Norwegian Sea. Nothing is known about what happened to the scout. The latest information received from the board was that the pilots had discovered the American Essex. There are speculations that the Tu-16-R was shot down by the Americans, although the latter deny their involvement in the disappearance of the Soviet plane.
Another Soviet Tu-95RTs aircraft from the Northern Fleet Air Force disappeared in the Norwegian Sea in August 1976.
During an aerial reconnaissance flight to the Atlantic, the Tu-95RC tried to intercept the American F-4 Phantom, as a result of which one of them crashed its wing into the tail of a Soviet reconnaissance aircraft. The American pilots ejected, and the Soviet pilots barely made it to the base.
Another incident is associated with the violation of Soviet borders, which resulted in the death of hundreds of people. In September 1983, Soviet airspace was violated by a South Korean Boeing 747 airliner, which was very similar to the RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft. When a target mark appeared on the on-board radar, the Su-15 pilot, who was sent to intercept, identified it as an RC-135. There is no need to remind what happened next...
After the new MiG-31 fighter-interceptors, which are considered the best in the world, appeared in service in the Soviet Union, the Americans no longer wanted to conduct aerial reconnaissance over Soviet territory. The Americans recognized the USSR's dominance in the air, focusing on creating ultra-precise aircraft.
Russia and Türkiye have confirmed that a Su-24 bomber was shot down on the Syrian-Turkish border. The history of such incidents shows that both parties involved in such situations try to avoid escalation of the conflict
A Russian Su-24 bomber takes off from Khmeimim airbase, October 21, 2015. (Photo: RIA Novosti)
The message about the crash of a military plane in the Middle East came on the morning of Tuesday, November 24. The Ministries of Defense of Turkey and Russia confirm the fact of the crash of the Russian Su-24 bomber, but each side describes the circumstances of the incident differently.
According to Ankara, the plane violated Turkish airspace, about which the pilots were warned several times in a row. As a result, F-16 fighters were scrambled into the air and shot down the Russian bomber. In addition, as CNN Turk reports, one of the pilots was killed and another was captured by Syrian Turkmens.
Moscow, on the contrary, claims that the Russian Air Force Su-24 bomber did not violate Turkish airspace, but was shot down (presumably from the ground) over Syrian territory. The Russian Ministry of Defense does not report anything about the fate of the pilots, except that, according to preliminary data, they ejected from the falling plane.
Airless space
In more than four years of civil war in Syria, this is not the first incident involving a violation of airspace that has led to tragic consequences. So, in June 2012, the Syrian army shot down a Turkish Air Force F-4 reconnaissance aircraft in the coastal zone of the Mediterranean Sea after violating the air border over Syrian territorial waters. Both pilots were killed and their bodies were found during a joint search by the Syrian and Turkish navies.
At the time, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that he was “outraged” by the Syrian decision to shoot down the plane, which he said was on a training mission. “A short-term violation of the [air] border can never be a reason for an attack,” the BBC quoted him as saying. Syria, he said, is a “clear threat” to Turkey. However, Ankara did not take immediate response measures: Erdogan announced that Turkey would adhere to the position of “common sense,” which, however, “should not be perceived as weakness.” In December 2012, the NATO Council decided to strengthen Turkish air defense forces in the area: two Patriot air defense missile batteries were provided by the USA, Germany and the Netherlands.
Subsequently, the Al Arabiya TV channel published documents that allegedly prove the involvement of Russian specialists in the plane crash and claimed that the Turkish pilots were captured alive and then secretly executed. “Based on information and instructions from the Russian leadership, [there is an idea] that it is necessary to destroy the two Turkish pilots detained by the special operations unit,” one of the documents says. The pilots were to be killed “naturally”, and their bodies were to be returned to the site of the plane crash in international waters, it is indicated there. Neither Türkiye nor Syria recognized the authenticity of the documents.
Already in the fall of 2012, when clashes between Syrian troops and the armed opposition on the border with Turkey became more frequent and shells began to fly into Turkish territory, Ankara launched several bombings of Syrian positions. In SeptemberIn 2013, the Turkish Air Force shot down a Syrian Mi-17 helicopter that was in the country's airspace. In March 2014, they shot down one of two fighters Moment -23, which flew over rebel positions not far from the Turkish border: one of the vehicles crossed Turkish airspace. The pilot ejected and was rescued.
In 2015, two serious incidents occurred: in May, Turkey shot down an Iranian-made unmanned reconnaissance aircraft that flew 11 km inside its territory. In mid-October, after the start of the Russian Air Force operation in Syria, a Turkish F-16 shot down a Russian-made drone that flew 3 km deep into Turkey. Despite hints from Ankara and Washington, Moscow denied that the UAV belonged to the Russian army. As a result, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that although the device was Russian-made, it could have belonged to both the Syrian authorities and the Kurdish rebels.
Without consequences
Since the end of the Cold War, countries that are not technically at war have repeatedly destroyed each other's warplanes over their territory. For example, in April 1992, a group of several Iranian Air Force F-4 fighter-bombers violated Iraqi airspace to bomb an Iranian opposition camp from the air. One of the planes was shot down by Iraqi air defenses. In 1980-1988, the two countries fought a war that claimed the lives of at least 250 thousand people, but, despite that the incident in the air was the largest violation of the truce between the countries in four years, the resumption of hostilities did not follow.
In October 1996, a Turkish F-16 crashed in the Aegean Sea, near the Greek island of Samos (closely adjacent to Turkish territorial waters) during a training flight. One of the pilots died, the other was rescued by the Greek military. The incident occurred during another escalation of the territorial dispute over the Aegean islands, but Athens and Ankara announced that the crash of the fighter was an accident. Seven years later, a Turkish admiral stated that the F-16 was in fact shot down by an air-to-air missile from a Greek aircraft. Athens declined to confirm the new reports.
In February 2009, US troops detected and shot down an Iranian reconnaissance drone flying over neighboring Iraq. According to a Pentagon spokesman, Washington had previously accused Tehran of violating Iraqi airspace, but the Iranians rejected all accusations, calling the violations random. “It is now clear that this is not an accident or a coincidence,” said Lt. Col. Mark Ballesteros. “After all, the drone was inside the borders of Iraq for more than an hour.” No actions directed against Iran followed this incident.
To say that the demarche of the young German turned into a huge scandal for the Armed Forces of the USSR is to say nothing. After a special meeting of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, the Minister of Defense, Marshal of the Soviet Union Sergei Sokolov, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Defense Forces, Air Marshal Alexander Koldunov, lost their posts. Dmitry Yazov was appointed to replace Sokolov.
The figure is stated to be from several dozen to three hundred military personnel, from lieutenants to generals, held accountable for the flight and landing of M. Rust at Sheremetevo-3, as Red Square was jokingly called after this incident. Many researchers of this history are inclined to believe that such repressive measures were unjustified: the Soviet air defense system was configured, first of all, to counter enemy combat aircraft and cruise missiles, and not to hooligans on sports aircraft.
Another stable version of what happened: it was a brilliantly planned and carried out action to discredit the USSR and the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union. The Cold War between the West and the USSR continued, and the successful flight of Matthias Rust turned out to be a wonderful occasion to once again sting the “evil empire”.
By the way, shortly after Rust’s flight, a similar story with a light aircraft occurred in France - there an amateur pilot also made an unauthorized flight over the country’s capital, causing the air defense command to worry. And in 1994, a sports Cessna landed near the White House in Washington. The landing then turned out to be unsuccessful - the pilot died.
In neither case was a “cleansing” of the Armed Forces in France and the United States carried out. The radar service was strengthened and the technical side was improved regarding the detection of such objects, tracking them and information exchange.
The sovereignty of a state extends to the airspace located above its land and water territory.
- This principle is now considered part of general international law. In the early years of aviation (with the advent of balloons, airships and the first heavier-than-air aircraft), there were three main competing theories in international law about the legal status of airspace:
- free air theory: it was argued that since the air cannot be appropriated and completely occupied, it must be as free as the sea (Fauqil);
- zone theory: by analogy with the territorial sea and the high seas, at the bottom there should be a zone of territorial airspace, and above it to an unlimited height - a zone of open airspace (Merinhak);
The First World War showed the possibility of using military aircraft as a new formidable weapon that threatened the security of neighboring countries. The First International Convention for the Regulation of Air Traffic of October 13, 1919 resolved the contradiction by stating in Art. 1: "The High Contracting Parties recognize that each Power has complete and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above its territory."
Article 1 of the current Convention on International Civil Aviation of 7 December 1944 (Chicago Convention), which had 191 States Parties in 2013, states: “The Contracting States recognize that each State has complete and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above its territory " This formulation indicates that principle of sovereignty of states over airspace was not established by the Chicago Convention and applies not only to the parties to this process, but is recognized as a rule of general international law and, therefore, should also apply to states that are not parties to the Convention.
For the purposes of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, the territory of a state means land territories and adjacent territorial waters. There is no similar right for peaceful flight of aircraft over territorial waters, which is a norm of international maritime law. They do not even have the right to fly over the territory of another state, except with permission granted by a special agreement or otherwise; Similar restrictions apply to unmanned aerial vehicles, including hot air balloons.
The term “airspace” is not well defined in international law and there is no legally established boundary between airspace and outer space. The UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space is studying the issue of delimitation and definition of outer space: such a definition would likely also allow for a clear legal definition of airspace.
In accordance with the Convention on International Civil Aviation, States have agreed that all aircraft of other Contracting States not participating in scheduled international air services have the right to fly into its territory or transit non-stop flights through its territory and make landings for non-commercial purposes without the need to obtain prior permission, but subject to the right of the state over whose territory the flight is carried out to require landing; this right may be further limited by the requirement to follow prescribed routes and make landings at designated airports.
No scheduled international air services operated by aircraft for the purpose of the public transport of passengers, cargo or mail may be conducted over or into the territory of a Contracting State except by special permission or other authorization of that State and in accordance with the terms of such permission or authorization .
Such authorization or authorization is, in practice, granted in bilateral air services agreements, whereby contracting States mutually grant over-flight rights, as well as other commercial rights, to designated airlines and designated points of origin and destination; Such agreements often cover flight capacity and frequency, aviation security requirements, tax issues, dispute resolution provisions, etc.
The multilateral or even global agreement on the rules of air transport and air navigation has not achieved all its intended goals. The International Civil Aviation Conference, held in Chicago from November 1 to December 7, 1944, did not introduce any positive provisions for scheduled international air services into the Convention on International Civil Aviation; however, the Conference adopted and opened for signature two separate conventions dealing with this issue: the International Air Lines Transit Agreement and the International Air Transport Agreement, signed on December 7, 1944.
According to the International Air Transit Agreement, each contracting state grants the other contracting states two “freedoms of air” when operating regular international air services:
- priority right to fly over its territory without landing;
- priority right to land for non-commercial purposes (for example, refueling or maintenance).
The International Air Transport Agreement, known as the “five freedoms” agreement, added three more to the core non-commercial freedoms:
- priority right to unload passengers, mail and cargo taken on board in the territory of the State of which the aircraft is a nationality;
- priority right to take on board passengers, mail and cargo with a destination in the territory of the State of which the aircraft is a nationality;
- the preferential right to take on passengers, mail and cargo destined for the territory of any other Contracting State and the preferential right to disembark passengers, mail and cargo arriving from any such territory.
Currently, the Agreement is valid only in 11 states. However, the “freedom of the air” formulated in it has been embodied in many bilateral air services agreements.
An aircraft that enters or violates sovereign airspace is often intercepted and subject to special enforcement measures. Some of these cases have been referred to the International Court of Justice, but objections to its jurisdiction have always prevented the Court from deciding on the merits of the issue (for example: Case of the Air Incident of October 7, 1952 (USA v. USSR), Case of the Air Incident of March 10, 1953 (USA v. Czechoslovakia); Case of the Air Incident of 27 July 1955 (Israel v. Bulgaria, United States v. Bulgaria, Great Britain v. Bulgaria)).
The most sensational incidents related to the interception of civil aircraft include the following: the destruction of an Israeli airliner in Bulgaria on July 27, 1955 (58 dead); On February 21, 1973, the Israeli Air Force shot down a Libyan civilian airliner over the Sinai (108 killed); On September 1, 1983, Korean Airlines flight KA007 was shot down in the skies over Sakhalin (269 victims). The latter incident prompted certain response measures and on 10 May 1984, the 25th (Extraordinary) Session of the ICAO Assembly unanimously approved an amendment in the form of a new Article 3 bis of the Convention on International Civil Aviation. Article 3 bis states:
Contracting States recognize that each State must refrain from resorting to the use of weapons against civil aircraft in flight and that, in the event of interception, the lives of those on board and the safety of the aircraft must not be endangered.
The wording of this provision indicates that the amendment does not introduce a new legal norm, but recognizes and confirms a pre-existing norm; again, the rule applies not only to the contracting states, but to “every state.”
On September 1, 1983, a Boeing 747 of the South Korean airline Korean Air Lines, flying on the New York-Seoul route, was shot down in the skies over the USSR. During the flight, the airliner entered closed Soviet airspace and flew over several Soviet military installations. As a result, two Su-15 interceptors were lifted into the air.
Military pilots repeatedly tried to establish contact with the intruder, but they never received a signal back. The Korean Boeing continued its flight towards Sakhalin. Having reported this to the operational headquarters, the command decided to shoot down the plane. After 40 minutes, the Su-15 fighter-interceptor under the control of Gennady Osipovich was given an order to shoot down the passenger airliner.
Osipovich fired two missiles at the planes, one of which damaged the Boeing’s tail. After 12 minutes, the plane, spiraling down from a height of 9000 m, fell into the sea near the island of Moneron. The crash killed 246 passengers and 23 crew members; no one survived.
Video
Video: NaturalHeaven on YouTube
Last Approach - Downed Korean Boeing
According to an investigation by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the most likely cause of the flight path deviation was that the Boeing 747 pilots did not set the autopilot correctly and then did not perform proper checks to confirm the current position.
The incident caused a serious aggravation of the already difficult relations between the USSR and the USA at that time. The scarcity of information and material evidence at the initial stage of the investigation of the disaster gave rise to alternative versions of the incident. However, the Russian Federation's release of flight recorder logs from flight KAL 007 confirmed ICAO's original version.
SUPERSONIC RAM
On November 28, 1973, an Iranian Air Force RF-4C Phantom II reconnaissance aircraft invaded Soviet airspace in Transcaucasia. On alert, a Soviet MiG-21SM under the control of Gennady Eliseev was urgently scrambled from the airfield in Vaziani. Ignoring all requests to change course and leave Soviet airspace, the Phantom continued its flight. Then the command allowed Eliseev to shoot down an enemy plane.
The MiG-21 fired two missiles at the intruder, but both of them missed the target. Having used up all the ammunition, the pilot decided to ram the Phantom. This was the third case of a supersonic air ram in the history of aviation. The crew of the Iranian plane (Iranian and American) ejected and were released by the Soviets two weeks later (the Iranian pilot subsequently died in the Iran-Iraq War). Gennady Eliseev was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for his interception.
Video
Video: ANZ Nick on YouTube
Supersonic fighter - interceptor Su-15
SPY PLANE U-2
On May 1, 1960, a U-2C reconnaissance aircraft piloted by Francis Powers invaded Soviet airspace. This was not the first time that high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft had flown over the territory of the Soviet Union.
A U-2C was shot down by Soviet air defenses in the Sverdlovsk region while on a reconnaissance mission from Peshawar Air Base, Pakistan. According to the official version, the plane was shot down by an S-75 anti-aircraft missile system. Powers survived because the missile only damaged the plane's tail. As a result, he was sentenced to prison by a Soviet court and was exchanged in 1962 for the Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel.
Video
Video: Dmitry Chronicle on YouTube
Battle of reconnaissance U-2 stealth aircraft
INCIDENT CL-44
On July 18, 1981, a CL-44 transport aircraft (number LV-JTN, Transporte Aéreo Rioplatense, Argentina), making a secret transport flight on the Tel Aviv-Tehran route, invaded Soviet airspace.
Four Su-15TMs were scrambled from the Vaziani airfield to intercept the intruder, but due to indecisiveness and unskilled actions of the command, the interceptors prematurely consumed fuel and were forced to return to base. Then a similar aircraft, piloted by Valentin Kulyapin, armed with R-98M medium-range air-to-air missiles, was aimed at the target with the task of landing the intruder.
Trying to carry out the order, the interceptor approached the target, which made it impossible to use missiles, while the intruder was approaching the border of USSR airspace. Kulyapin decided to ram the CL-44 and on the second attempt he was able to hit the intruder’s stabilizer from below with the fin and fuselage of his aircraft.
The transport plane lost control and fell several kilometers from the border; 4 crew members on board, including a British citizen, died. Kulyapin successfully ejected and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for the ram. As it turned out, the Argentine plane was transporting weapons for Iran.
INCIDENT WITH SOUTH KOREAN BOOING
The incident with the South Korean Boeing occurred on April 20, 1978 in the airspace of the USSR over Karelia. Due to a compass malfunction, the plane deviated significantly from its route. At 20:54 local time, the Boeing was first detected by Soviet radars. At 21:19 he invaded Soviet airspace in the Kola Peninsula area.
Since the intruder did not respond to requests from air traffic control services, a Su-15 piloted by Captain Alexander Bosov was scrambled to intercept. Approaching the Boeing, Bosov shook his wings. In response to this, the intruder turned around and began to leave towards Finland. Bosov received an order to destroy the intruder.
At 21:42, the interceptor fired an R-98 missile, which exploded near the leftmost engine of the Boeing, tearing off a part of the wing 3-4 m long. In addition, the passenger cabin was depressurized, the plane began a sharp descent and was lost from sight by Bosov.
The Boeing was forced to land on the ice of frozen Lake Korpijärvi. As a result of the hard landing, 2 passengers died: a businessman from South Korea and a tourist from Japan. In total, there were 97 passengers on board (including 26 women and 5 children) and 12 crew members.
LANDING ON RED SQUARE
On the afternoon of May 28, 1987, 18-year-old Matthias Rust took off from Hamburg on a four-seat light Cessna 172B Skyhawk. He made an intermediate landing at Helsinki-Malmi airport to refuel. Rust told airport traffic control that he was flying to Stockholm. At some point, Rust lost contact with Finnish air traffic control and then headed towards the Baltic Sea coastline and disappeared from Finnish airspace near Sipoo. Rescuers discovered an oil slick in the sea and regarded it as evidence of a plane crash. Rust crossed the Soviet border near the city of Kohtla-Jarve and headed for Moscow.
Moving to Moscow, Rust was guided by the Leningrad-Moscow railway. Along the route of its flight, duty units from the Khotilovo and Bezhetsk airfields took off, but the order to shoot down the Cessna was never received.
The automated air defense system of the Moscow Military District was turned off for maintenance work, so tracking of the intruder aircraft had to be done manually and coordinated by telephone. Rust landed on the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge, coasted to St. Basil's Cathedral, got off the plane at 19:10 and began signing autographs. He was soon arrested.
Video
Video: chipilayr on YouTube
Mathias Rust on Red Square 1987
