That Time A Crippled SR-71 Blackbird In Emergency Was Intercepted By Four Swedish Viggens After Violating Sweden’s Airspace
An interesting Cold War episode worth 4 medals.
During the 1980s, the U.S. flew regular SR-71 Blackbird aircraft reconnaissance missions in international waters over the Barents Sea and the Baltic Sea, the latter known as “Baltic Express” missions. On June 29, 1987, during one of those missions, a Blackbird launched from RAF Mildenhall, UK, piloted by retired Lt. Cols. Duane Noll and Tom Veltri, experienced a pretty serious inflight emergency. Flying a northern course, at 75,000 feet and Mach 3.0, its right engine exploded. In order to manage the emergency, the aircrew immediately turned towards Sweden, rapidly descending. At an altitude of 25,000 feet, approaching Gotland Island, the Blackbird violated the Swedish airspace triggeri… Continue Reading (4 minute read)
The real Cold War was the friends we made along the way. No, really.
“There were a lot of things we couldn’t do in an SR-71…”
You know the rest.
Yeah Sweden!
Another fun fact:
It leaked fuel from every part of the plane. They had to fill it up right before takeoff. This was actually part of the design. The areas that leaked closed together once the sr71 reached a certain altitude.
https://imgur.com/a/Td6PywQ
Bonus pic of one leaking.
Thanks Sweden!
TIL after WW2 Sweden rapidly modernized their Air Force and by “1957 Sweden had the world’s fourth most powerful air force.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_Air_Force
If it was over international waters and not Warsaw Pact airspace, what justification would there have been for the Soviets to shoot it down? Im guessing the “over international waters” bit is a fig leaf and it really had been in someone else’s airspace.