Originally posted by Hortlund
In international airspace we can fly whatever we want.
And the Soviets could shoot you down wherever they want since they were a huge nuclear superpower while you were just an annoying speck at their borders.
Originally posted by Hortlund
And you seem to be missinformed as usual, the US was not flying this route at all at the time. This because a US aircraft had been shot down in the same area less than a year before. So much for the uninterceptable US spy planes flying there on a weekly basis.
Which shoot down would that be?
29 April 1952
A DC-4 of Air France was shot at by two MiG-15s when approaching Berlin. The aircraft was damaged and three passengers wounded.
13 June 1952
A RB-29 over the Sea of Japan, near Hokkaido.
7 October 1952
A RB-29 over the Kurile Islands.
29 November 1952
A China Air Transport C-47 on a mission to pick up agent Li Chun-ying was shot down over China. CAT pilots Snoddy and Schwartz were killed. CIA agents Richard Fectau and John Downey were captured and held in China until 1972/73. Some sources place this incident as happening a year later.
12 January 1953
A B-29 on a leaflet-dropping mission over Manchuria. The 11 crew members were taken prisoner by the Chinese and released in 1955.
18 January 1953
A P2V over Formosa Strait.
10 March 1953
Two USAF F-84Gs based in West Germany crossed into Czechoslovakian airspace, and were intercepted by MiG-15s. One was shot down.
12 March 1953.
A RAF Lincoln was shot down over East Germany.
29 July 1953
An RB-50 over the Sea of Japan. Only one of the 17 crewmembers was rescued, but there are rumours that others were taken prisoners by the USSR.
Summer 1953
It is claimed that a RAF Canberra, possibly a modified B Mk.2, suffered damage during a spy flight over the USSR. This event remains a mystery,
17 August 1953
A T-6 over the Korean demilitarized zone.
The fact is that both the RAF and USAAF (CIA) were regularly violating Soviet airspace at the time. The Canberra was all but uninterceptable at the time and regularly overflew Soviet missile complex' and testing grounds.
