Catalina affair
1952 Cold War-era diplomatic crisis / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Catalina affair (Swedish: Catalinaaffären) was a military confrontation and Cold War-era diplomatic crisis in June 1952, in which Soviet Air Force fighter jets shot down two Swedish aircraft over international waters in the Baltic Sea.
Incident | |
---|---|
Date | 13 June 1952 |
Summary | Shot down |
Site | East of Gotska Sandön 58°23′31″N 20°17′28″E[2] |
Aircraft | |
Aircraft type | DC-3A-360 Skytrain |
Aircraft name | Hugin[3][4] |
Operator | Swedish Air Force |
Flight origin | Stockholm Bromma Airport Stockholm, Sweden |
Destination | Stockholm Bromma Airport |
Passengers | 0 |
Crew | 8 |
Fatalities | 8 |
Survivors | 0 |
Incident | |
---|---|
Date | 16 June 1952 |
Summary | Shot down |
Site | East of Gotska Sandön |
Aircraft | |
Aircraft type | PBY-5 Catalina |
Operator | Swedish Air Force |
Flight origin | F 2 Hägernäs[5] near Stockholm, Sweden |
Destination | F 2 Hägernäs[6] |
Passengers | 0 |
Crew | 7 |
Fatalities | 0 |
The first aircraft to be shot down was an unarmed Swedish Air Force Tp 79, a derivative of the Douglas DC-3, carrying out radio and radar signals intelligence-gathering for the National Defence Radio Establishment (Försvarets radioanstalt, FRA). None of the crew of eight survived.
The second aircraft to be shot down was a Swedish Air Force Tp 47, a Catalina flying boat, involved in the search and rescue operation for the missing DC-3. The Catalina's crew of seven were saved.
The Soviet Union publicly denied involvement until its dissolution in 1991. Both aircraft were located in 2003; the DC-3 was salvaged.