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.

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. Thus, in June 2012, the Syrian army shot down a Turkish Air Force F-4 reconnaissance aircraft in the coastal zone 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 September 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 MiG-23 fighters that were flying over rebel positions near the Turkish border - one of the aircraft crossed into 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 " cold war“Countries that are not formally 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. From 1980 to 1988, the two countries fought a war that killed at least 250,000 people, but despite the air incident being the largest violation of the truce between the countries in four years, there was no resumption of hostilities.

In October 1996, a Turkish F-16 crashed into the Aegean Sea near Greek island 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 said 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.


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?

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 Baltic Sea in the Latvian Liepaja region. 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 US Air Force F-80 Shooting Star fighter-bombers during a combat mission against ground targets in the territory 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 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. Also accidentally shot down by an anti-aircraft missile soviet fighter A MiG-19 scrambled to intercept an 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.

Russia and Turkey 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.