| Submit your comments on this article |
| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Korean War's Ghost Pilots and Mystery Planes |
| 2012-12-05 |
It was the sort of surprise no combat pilot wants to get. As his small, propeller-driven “Mosquito” spotter plane droned along over the Korean battlefield, the U.S. Air Force pilot spotted a far faster enemy jet roaring in for a kill. Only quick action allowed him to escape by executing “several 360-degree turns” to shake off his less agile adversary. But when the report of the encounter made it to Air Force intelligence, what analysts found most remarkable was not their pilot’s skill, but the identification of the attacker – a “hostile F-84,” an American fighter jet. This was no isolated case of mistaken “friendly fire,” officers feared. In late 1951 and 1952, numerous American pilots reported sighting, and even being attacked by, several types of “hostile” U.S. fighters, sometimes spotted flying in formation with enemy MiG-15s. Previously classified records obtained by Korean Confidential detail these incidents and that Air Force intelligence believed even its new, top-of-the line jet fighter was involved, reporting indications in 1952 that the Soviet “enemy has put an F-86 aircraft into operation in Korea.” |
| Posted by:GolfBravoUSMC |
| #1 |
| Posted by: Richard Aubrey 2012-12-05 12:14 |