Shot down an air border violator. High-profile cases of violation of the sea and air borders of the USSR and Russia. The world shook in indignation

Two US Navy F-51 Mustangs were damaged. There was a combat clash with two Soviet La-11 fighters. During the air battle, one F-51 was shot down and one Soviet aircraft was damaged.

On May 1, 1960, an American Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, piloted by pilot Francis Powers, violated the airspace of the USSR and (now Yekaterinburg). The reconnaissance plane was shot down by an S-75 anti-aircraft missile system. The pilot, Francis Powers, survived and was sentenced to ten years in prison. In February 1962, Powers was exchanged in Berlin for Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel.

On July 1, 1960, the air border between Norway and the USSR was grossly violated by an ERB-47H Stratojet aircraft from the 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing of the US Air Force. The car that took off from a British airfield was destroyed by a MiG-19 fighter. Of the six crew members, two survived; both pilots were captured and released in January 1961. In addition, the Soviet side returned to the United States the found remains of one of the four dead ERB-47H crew members a month after the incident.

On July 1, 1968, a McDonnell Douglas DC-8 of the American Seaboard World Airlines crossed the USSR border in the Kuril Islands area. There were more than 200 American soldiers on board the plane. 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.

November 28, 1973 Iranian Air Force RF-4C Phantom II reconnaissance aircraft from Turkey via Armenia and Georgia. In the Georgian region, our MiG-21SM fighter flew out to intercept. The Iranian plane was shot down by ramming. The Soviet pilot died. The F-4 crew was ejected by the Soviets and released shortly thereafter.

On September 1, 1983, a Boeing 747 of the South Korean company Korean Air was shot down by a Soviet fighter-interceptor on a flight from New York to Seoul. There were 269 people on board the liner, including 246 passengers. All passengers and crew members died in the crash. The destruction of Boeing became the reason for a worldwide scandal. The United States accused the USSR of deliberately destroying the airliner.

On March 13, 1986, the guided-missile cruiser Yorktown and the US Navy destroyer Caron entered Soviet territorial waters ten kilometers. The ships were sailing with working radio-electronic stations and, obviously, were conducting comprehensive reconnaissance.

On May 28, 1987, German citizen Matthias Rust violated the state border of the USSR on a Cessna sports plane and, having covered 1220 kilometers in 5 hours 50 minutes,... The plane landed on the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge and coasted to St. Basil's Cathedral. The pilot got off the plane and immediately began signing autographs. He was soon arrested. Rust was sentenced to four years in prison; on August 3, 1988, he was pardoned by the Presidium of the Supreme Council and expelled from the territory of the USSR.

In 2014 alone, Turkey violated Greek airspace more than 2.5 thousand times, and the United States more than once provoked the USSR by approaching the country’s air border with nuclear warheads on board. Don't believe me? That's in vain!

When a Russian plane accidentally violated Israeli airspace, the pilot fled the country after being warned. Errors of this kind are acceptable at such speeds, and no one began to bomb the Russian Aerospace Forces. After all, Russia does not pose any threat to the state, which means there is no point in bringing it down.

According to Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, there was a minor incursion, just a mile away. And after communication with the pilot was established, he changed course and returned to Syria. No one considered it necessary to react to this; the Russian Federation does not attack the territory. Actually, there’s nothing to worry about.

However, as practice shows, not everyone is guided by this kind of logic. Türkiye, which clearly pursued certain goals, turned out to be more principled. Although, it would seem that at such a time it is possible to omit this kind of trifles and let people work in peace. But no. During an alleged airspace violation, a Russian Su-24 was shot down in cold blood.

If everything is so serious, and even now, when Russia is actively engaged in destroying the positions of the “Islamic State”, many countries are ready to turn a blind eye to the mistakes of Russian pilots, it is surprising why some countries focus on such mistakes.

But before we return to our sheep, let’s remember, first, how Turkey, for example, collected about 2.5 thousand violations of intrusion into Greek airspace last year alone. 2.5 thousand, Karl! This is not for you to go out into the street for a walk. And did anyone in the West react? Has Athens started full-scale hysteria and threats, they say, let’s do it, then we’ll see how you dance in your Ankara. No, that didn't happen. And so, for reference, on the eve of the tragedy on the Syrian-Turkish border, Turkey invaded the skies of Greece more than 20 times a day.

American planes have also found themselves on foreign territory more than once. For example, in Venezuela. But even then, no one began to shoot down the reconnaissance aircraft of the US Coast Guard. The question is: “Why?” Is the USA really that special, or do they have special privileges (judging by Erdogan’s logic, according to which every plane that violates someone else’s border should be destroyed).

The same notorious NATO planes, yes, the same organization to which Turkey immediately ran after shooting down the Su-24, were seen in several violations of the borders with Belarus. It’s surprising that Father Lukashenko did not fire a lethal shell at them.

And, in order to completely consolidate the material we have covered, let’s remember how our beloved Americans, fighting “for world peace,” several times carried out many operations when alliance and US bombers rushed at incredible speed to the borders of the USSR, loaded with nuclear warheads, so that check the Union's reaction. What will happen? Will he strike back out of fear? Or will it pass? Or will it still be possible to provoke?

But normal countries would not provoke the Third World War. At this stage, it is not very difficult to untie it. You just have to wonder if there is any point in these threats? And who will they ultimately benefit?

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.

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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 recordings 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.

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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.

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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 Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge, coasted to St. Basil's Cathedral, got off the plane at 19:10 and began signing autographs. He was soon arrested.

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Mathias Rust on Red Square 1987

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:

1. 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);
2. 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);
3. theory of complete and exclusive sovereignty of the state.

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:

1. priority right to fly over its territory without landing;
2. 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:

1. priority right to unload passengers, mail and cargo taken on board in the territory of the State of which the aircraft is a nationality;
2. 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;
3. 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, USA 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.”

The incident in the area of ​​the Syrian-Turkish border, where, according to a statement by official Ankara, vividly recalled the times of the Cold War. During that period, the air confrontation between the USSR Air Force and the military aviation of NATO countries repeatedly led to military clashes.

According to incomplete data, in the period from 1950 to 1983, at least 40 cases of the use of weapons by USSR and NATO Air Force aircraft against each other were recorded. These cases do not include combat in Vietnam, Korea and the Middle East.

According to military experts, in reality there were much more military clashes, but many incidents were hushed up by both sides in order to avoid escalation of the situation.

At the same time, the main losses in these battles were suffered by NATO forces, since they were the ones who carried out operations in close proximity to the airspace of the USSR. During the military clashes, NATO forces lost at least 27 aircraft and helicopters and more than 130 military personnel. The losses of the USSR Air Force do not exceed 10 aircraft.

Here are just the largest air incidents of the Cold War.

On April 8, 1950, the PB4Y-2 Privatir bomber aircraft of the 26th Patrol Squadron of the US Navy was shot down by Soviet La-11 fighters over the Baltic Sea in the Latvian region of Liepaja. According to the Soviet pilots, the intruder fired at them and was shot down directly over Latvia, falling into the sea. The US said a private plane was shot down. The crew of the downed plane, numbering 10 people, died.

On October 8, 1950, two F-80 Shooting Star fighter-bombers of the US Air Force, during a combat mission against ground targets in North Korea (during the Korean War), deviated from course, invaded USSR airspace and attacked the Sukhaya Rechka airfield. in the Vladivostok region. As a result of the raid on the ground, 8 P-63 King Cobra aircraft of the USSR Air Force were damaged, one of which was subsequently written off; there were no casualties or injuries. The United States apologized in connection with the incident; the commander of the air group whose planes carried out the raid was removed from command and transferred to headquarters; the pilots were court-martialed.

On June 13, 1952, an RB-29 Superfortress reconnaissance aircraft of the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron of the US Air Force, taking off from the Japanese Yokota Air Base, was shot down by Soviet MiG-15 fighters over the Sea of ​​Japan. According to the pilots, the intruder fired at them. All 12 members of the plane's crew are considered dead.

On July 29, 1953, the RB-50G Superfortress reconnaissance aircraft of the 343rd Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron of the US Air Force was shot down by Soviet MiG-17 fighters in the area of ​​Askold Island over the Sea of ​​Japan. During the interception, the aircraft's tail gunner unsuccessfully fired at Soviet fighters. Of the 17 crew members, 1 survived, picked up by an American ship.

On November 7, 1954, an RB-29 Superfortress reconnaissance aircraft was shot down by Soviet fighters over the Kuril Islands. The crew bailed out, 10 were rescued by American emergency services, and 1 drowned after splashdown. The Soviet side stated that the plane was in USSR airspace and fired at the fighters that intercepted it; the American side rejected these accusations.

On June 22, 1955, a P2V Neptune patrol aircraft of the US Navy Patrol Squadron 9 was attacked by Soviet MiG-15 fighters over the Bering Strait and then crashed on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. There were no deaths among the crew members, but they were all injured. The incident occurred in difficult weather conditions, which makes it difficult to reconstruct the picture of what happened. The USSR agreed to pay financial compensation in connection with the incident.

Soviet aces shot down Turkish planes and captured a Turkish colonel

On September 2, 1958, a C-130A-II Hercules reconnaissance aircraft of the 7406th Combat Support Squadron of the US Air Force, taking off from Adana airfield in Turkey, was shot down by Soviet MiG-17 fighters over Armenia. All 17 crew members died, their remains were returned partly immediately after the incident, partly after search operations 40 years later.

On May 1, 1960, a US CIA U-2C reconnaissance aircraft piloted Francis Powers, shot down by the Soviet air defense system in the Sverdlovsk region during a reconnaissance flight from the Peshawar air base in Pakistan. The plane was shot down by an S-75 anti-aircraft missile system. An anti-aircraft missile also accidentally shot down a Soviet MiG-19 fighter, scrambled to intercept the intruder (pilot Sergei Safronov died). Powers survived, was sentenced to prison by a Soviet court, and was exchanged for a Soviet in 1962. intelligence officer Rudolf Abel.

On October 21, 1970, a light twin-engine U-8 Seminole aircraft of the US Air Force lost its way, violated the airspace of the USSR and landed at the airfield of a military flight unit near the city of Leninakan, Armenian SSR. In addition to the pilot, there were two American generals and a colonel of the Turkish army on board. Realizing his mistake, the plane tried to take off again, but was blocked. After an investigation into the incident, the pilots and passengers were released.

On November 28, 1973, an Iranian Air Force RF-4C Phantom II reconnaissance aircraft invaded Soviet airspace in Transcaucasia. The MiG-21SM fighter that intercepted it unsuccessfully expended its missiles, after which pilot Gennady Eliseev carried out a supersonic air ram. The crew of the Iranian plane (Iranian and American) ejected and were detained by the Soviet military. Pilot Gennady Eliseev died. For intercepting the intruder, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously).

On August 24, 1976, a pair of Turkish Air Force F-100 Super Saber fighter-bombers invaded Soviet airspace. One of them was shot down by a Soviet anti-aircraft missile system; the pilot ejected and landed in Turkey.