Here's one for Huub.
- Thread starter Sbob
- Start date
I can still remember this incident quite well. But you have to place the incident back in the time it happened. The QRA fighters often scrambled several times per week. The American F-15s and Belgian F-16s were in standby to intercept aircraft from the East (North German plains) and Dutch F-16s and British RAF fighters intercepted the aircraft from the North (Atlantic Ocean/North Sea). The Tu-95 Bear was a very common "guest" in those days.
As the Cold war was nearing its end, the incident internationally didn't get much attention. Nobody really wanted to disturb the negotiations between East and West. And I expect the Russians were sure that the aircraft would crash is the Baltic sea. While NATO expected it to crash in the North Sea, or even behind, as a RAF Phantom from Wattisham UK scrambled as well. Most fuzz (critism) about this incident was about the question why the Flogger wasn't shot much earlier when it still flew over less densely populated areas.
The cold war seems so far in the past already, but after watching the movie, I realised this "only" happened 35 years ago....
Cheers,
Huub
As the Cold war was nearing its end, the incident internationally didn't get much attention. Nobody really wanted to disturb the negotiations between East and West. And I expect the Russians were sure that the aircraft would crash is the Baltic sea. While NATO expected it to crash in the North Sea, or even behind, as a RAF Phantom from Wattisham UK scrambled as well. Most fuzz (critism) about this incident was about the question why the Flogger wasn't shot much earlier when it still flew over less densely populated areas.
The cold war seems so far in the past already, but after watching the movie, I realised this "only" happened 35 years ago....
Cheers,
Huub
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