1957 United States Air Force incursion into Albanian airspace

The 1957 United States Air Force incursion into Albanian airspace (Albanian: Incidentet e para ajrore), was a Cold War incident.^[1][4][3]

1957 United States Air Force incursion into Albanian airspace
Part of The Cold War
The USAF Lockheed T-33 fighter jet at Gjirokastër
Date December 23, 1957 Location Rinas, Albania 40.0737°N 20.14013°E / 40.0737; 20.14013 Result Aircraft seized American pilot arrested but later released
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]

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 Gjirokastër castle museum. The T-33 air incident was just one of at least eight that occurred between Albania and foreign powers from 1948 to the late 1970s.^[1]

References

1. "Koha kur avionët e Enverit luftonin me botën". Konica.al. November 24, 2019. Retrieved December 3, 2022.
2. van Gerven Oei 2015, p. 180.
3. ""Në vitin 1957, një pilot i NATO-s, me gradën e majorit, uli avionin e tij "T-33" në aeroportin e Rinasit"/ Dëshmia". Memorie.al (in Albanian). February 13, 2020. Retrieved December 3, 2022.
4. "A 'Dead' Flier Safe at Home". Life. September 4, 1970.
5. Spektër (in Albanian). 2001. p. 19.
6. van Gerven Oei, Vincent W. J. (2015). Workers Leaving the Studio. Looking Away from Socialist Realism. Punctum Books. ISBN 978-0-692-48041-0. OCLC 945783129.
7. zgjohushqiptar.info (January 25, 2019). "Koha kur avionët e Enverit luftonin me botën, ndersa sot avion shqiptarë …një ëndërr". Zgjohu Shqiptar. Retrieved December 3, 2022.
8. Regnery, Alfred S. (2019). Unlikely pilgrim : a journey into history and faith. New York, NY. ISBN 978-0-8253-0800-0. OCLC 1082977970.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
9. Gibler, Douglas M. (2018). International Conflicts, 1816-2010: Militarized Interstate Dispute Narratives. Lanham, Maryland. ISBN 978-1-4422-7558-4. OCLC 1030585387.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
10. Keesing's Contemporary Archives. University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign: Keesing's Limited. 1957. p. 15984.