1957 United States Air Force incursion into Albanian airspace | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of The Cold War | |||||||
A Lockheed T-33 fighter jet on Gjirokastër | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Albania | United States | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Anastas Ngjela | / Howard J. Curran | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
Air Force of the Albanian People's Army | United States Air Force | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
2 MiG-15 [1] [2] | 1 Lockheed T-33 [2] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
None | 1 T-33 captured [3] |
The 1957 United States Air Force incursion into Albanian airspace ( Albanian: Incidentet e para ajrore), was a Cold War incident. [1] [4] [3]
On December 23, 1957, an American T-33 fighter jet violated Albanian airspace. [5] Two MiG-15 aircraft took off from Kuçova Air Base, piloted by Anastas Ngjela and Mahmut Hysa. [6] [7]
The American fighter jet was surrounded and forced to land on the unfinished runway at Rinas Airport. [8] [9] The plane was impounded and the American pilot Major Howard J. Curran was arrested. [10] Curran was released on January 11, 1958, while the plane was placed in the Gjirokastra castle museum.
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