1960 RB-47 shootdown incident

1960 aviation accident August 2026 September 2019 RB-47 shootdown incident of 1960 the Cold War RB-47 Stratojet.jpg Barents Sea, near Kola Peninsula 1 July 1960 Intercept American RB-47H spy aircraft Aircraft shot down 4 Soviet Air Defense Forces On 1 July 1960, a United States RB-47H reconnaissance plane was shot down by the Soviet Air Defence Forces while performing signals intelligence in the Barents Sea, near the Kola Peninsula, off the Arctic coast of the Soviet Union. Four of the six crew members died.https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=60677 aviation-safety.net Accident Boeing RB-47H Stratojet 53-4281, 01 Jul 1960 15 September 2019 The shootdown occurred exactly two months after the far better known U-2 shootdown involving Francis Gary Powers, and added to the tensions created by that incident. The plane was part of the 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing and took off from RAF Brize Norton airbase in the United Kingdom. It was shot down by Soviet pilot Vasily Polyakov in a MiG-19. The US position was that the plane was in international airspace, and this was later corroborated by information provided by spy Oleg Penkovsky.Penkovskiy Oleg The Penkovskiy Papers Doubleday & Co. New York 1965 369 Three of the crewmen (reconnaissance officers Capt. Oscar Goforth, Capt. Dean Phillips, and Capt. Eugene Posa) were missing in action, and the remains of one other (aircraft commander Maj. Willard Palm) were recovered.https://valor.militarytimes.com/hero/33473 John McKone - Recipient - Military Times Hall Of Valor valor.militarytimes.com 27 September 2019https://valor.militarytimes.com/hero/33474 Freeman Olmstead - Recipient - Military Times Hall Of Valor valor.militarytimes.com 27 September 2019 The two survivors, navigator Captain John R. McKone and co-pilot Captain Freeman "Bruce" Olmstead, were picked up by Soviet fishing trawlers and held in Lubyanka prison in Moscow until immediately after the inauguration of newly elected US President John F. Kennedy on 20 January 1961, when they were released by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev as a goodwill gesture."RB-47H Shot Down." nationalmuseum.af.mil, Retrieved: 15 September 2019."RB-47H Shot Down" (archived older version, with more detail) nationalmuseum.af.mil, Retrieved: 15 September 2019. McKone and Olmstead appeared on the cover of the 3 February 1961 issue of Time magazine.https://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19610203,00.html Time RB-47 Fliers McKone & Olmstead 3 February 1961 25 May 2024 In his news conference on 21 April 1961, Kennedy was asked if the dropping of charges against an accused Soviet spy was in exchange for the release of the RB-47 aviators. The president denied this.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYx6MG6NkjU&t=26m28s President Kennedy's News Conference No. 10, 04/21/1961 YouTube 21 April 1961 15 September 2019 As a result of their involvement in the incident, Olmstead and McKone received POW medals in 1996 and Silver Star medals in 2004, as well as the Distinguished Flying Cross. See also Soviet Union United States aerial reconnaissance of the Soviet Union General: Cold War (1953–1962) Analogous incidents: 1958 C-130 shootdown incident 1960 U-2 incident Hainan Island incident References White William Lindsay William Lindsay White 1962 The Little Toy Dog: The story of the two RB-47 flyers, Captain John R. McKone and Captain Freeman B. Olmstead E.P. Dutton & Co. 25622095M 62007801 External links RB-47 Shootdown Information collapsed Category:1960 in international relations Category:1960 in military history Category:1960 in politics RB-47 shootdown incident Category:20th-century aircraft shootdown incidents Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in the Soviet Union Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in 1960 Category:Cold War conflicts Category:Combat incidents Category:United States espionage scandals and incidents Category:Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower Category:Soviet Union–United States relations Category:July 1960 in Europe Category:Espionage in the Soviet Union Category:Cold War military history of the Soviet Union