An old accident

[Viggen]

"In the mid eighties or on july 7 1985 to be precise. An SH37 from F21 was out alone, flying on international waters in the balticsea. It flew on lowest altitude possible. Two Russian SU15´s discoverd it. They got direct orders not to intercept or engage the swedish fighter. One of the pilots went against that order and made a steep dive to get behind the SH37. The pilot in the swedish fighter made a counterturn so the SU15 would not be able to get behind him. As a result of this, the SU15 was not able to preform the pull up required and crashed into the sea."

"Russains never mentioned the incident, probably because their own pilot was the blame of the accident."

Source: Svenska Flyghistoriska Föreningen. Ingemar Strandberg

[Webmaster]

hehe, boys, toys and playing war 

[Viggen]

Yupp, very intresting to read about this old stuff. More and more are surfacing now since the viggen has retired and as years have passed by.

This incident also has a littele twist to it. The story also mentions that the Swedish pilot later had a faint sillhouette of a russian plane painted on his aircraft. 

How many more kills does he need before he can call himself an ace? 

[Raptor]

I really liked that kill. Just a little jet fuel used.

[Webmaster]

Yeah, and no political blame-game. Actually I think these kills should get double points.   

[Raptor]

I think so too.

No super expensive missile fired, trains the pilot in the art of combat manuevering, AND it saves the goverment from having to argue with the other one. Quite the excellent situation. That Blame-game thing.

[Viggen]

Maybe they should rework the whole book on aircombat procedures. Just write Reno Air race with big letter in it instead. 
I like this incident, not just because the Viggen and its pilot came out on top. But mostly becuse as you say, it was without the use of any weapons, all about aircraft and its pilot. Im sorry that the russian pilot did not have time to eject and lost his life, but you would expect that a pilot should know his aircrafts limit.

[Raptor]

Oh, i'm sure, Viggen. Pg 15, section 32, see paragraph 12.

You out-manuever a missile flying at Mach 3, with a 90 degree turn radius by... turning as hard as you can!!!

Well, maybe no one told him. Or maybe they didn't include the user maual in the starter kit, cos they were a few short.

[MightyHunter]

May sound like a similar story I heard many moons back on Red Flag , the mighty Blackburn Buccaneer was bounced by 2 F-14s and im led to beleive it ended up in some Canyon flying , the Buccaneer pilot knew his aircraft limits and pulled steep at the end of a canyon where as one of the F14 drivers misjudged and did not make it , not 100% accurate but its one of them tales from the old days.

[Gripen]

How many more kills does he need before he can call himself an ace? 

Dont pilots need 5 confirmed kills to be counted as an ace? Or is that different these days?

[F-111 C/C]

An EF-111A Raven was credited with a "kill" during Desert Storm in the same manner. On the night of January 17, 1991, an Iraqi Mirage F.1 flew into the ground while chasing EF-111A serial number 66-0016. Even though the Raven is unarmed and has no air-to-air capability, the Raven crew was given credit for the kill.

[Viggen]

An EF-111A Raven was credited with a "kill" during Desert Storm in the same manner. On the night of January 17, 1991, an Iraqi Mirage F.1 flew into the ground while chasing EF-111A serial number 66-0016. Even though the Raven is unarmed and has no air-to-air capability, the Raven crew was given credit for the kill.

I think i "saw" this on History channel, they reconstructed the incident on a prg called Dogfights in season 2. Im not sure of this since it was some time ago i watched throu season 2, but it sounds so familiar now when you mentioned it.