Chapter 124 R-98's Attack (Subscribe)

Attacking civilian aircraft is a very bad behavior. Since the end of World War II, there have been only four incidents of accidental shooting down of passenger planes in the world. Twice, Israel shot down Swedish and Libyan passenger planes, once the Bulgarian Air Force shot down an Israeli passenger plane, and once, China shot down a British passenger plane.

As the two poles confronting each other under the Iron Curtain, there is no precedent of directly shooting down a passenger plane.

Moreover, when they first came here, they had already passed through the Soviet Kamchatka Peninsula and directly crossed the enemy's airspace, and the enemy did not react. Now, if they cross from Sakhalin Island, they should not encounter any major problems.

Among the entire crew, only the captain and the pilot knew the truth of the matter. They were flying this time under the instructions of the US intelligence agencies to conduct reconnaissance on the Soviet Union.

The United States no longer dared to use Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft to conduct reconnaissance in Soviet airspace, but wanted to know some of the Soviet deployments. Especially recently, the Soviet military movements in the Far East have been quite frequent. The Americans were a little worried that if the Soviets deployed a large number of troops on Sakhalin Island, they might launch a cross-sea operation, crossing the short Soya Strait and heading directly from Sakhalin Island to Hokkaido.

Would the Soviets dare? Maybe.

In order to determine the Soviet military deployment, a reconnaissance was needed, but the Americans did not dare to use the Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft, so they thought of using civil airliners.

Throughout history, there have been many cases of using civil airliners for reconnaissance. Although this was done in the service of national interests, it was a shameless act to risk the lives of everyone on board and to use the other party's morality to restrain the other party.

In particular, the people on the plane were completely unaware of the situation and it was the shameless senior management who put them into a crisis.

Although this is an ordinary civil airliner, this Boeing 747 served in the South Korean Air Force before joining Korean Air. It had been modified under the belly and was equipped with sensitive optical cameras, infrared cameras and other equipment, which can take clear pictures of the ground.

They needed to fly over Sakhalin Island and take pictures of the place for use by the departments in the rear.

Both the captain and the pilot had served in the Korean Air Force. In addition to being employees of Korean Air, they were also required to obey orders from above in many cases.

This time, after refueling at Anchorage Airport in Alaska, the flight direction deviated after takeoff. However, quite tacitly, the civil aviation guidance station in the middle did not give any warning at all. After takeoff, the plane deviated from the route by five degrees, just enough to fly over the Soviet Kamchatka Peninsula and Sakhalin Island.

The captain was very stable. This was not the first time he had done something like this and he had a good mental state. However, the pilot did not have such great confidence.

"Captain, I seemed to hear some bang bang sounds outside just now. Are those two Soviet fighter planes firing shells at us?" the pilot continued to ask.

There were only two of them in the cabin at this time, and the pilot felt a little guilty.

"Stupid, didn't you also serve in the Air Force?" The captain said, "Night fighters use shells that are a combination of high-explosive shells and tracer shells to indicate the trajectory. Did you see any tracer shells just now?"

Before entering civil aviation, the captain had flown the F-86, so he was considered an experienced pilot. In fact, he had never participated in night flights, which were only for top pilots. Even if you haven't seen pigs run, you must have eaten pork, right? The captain knew this knowledge.

He knew it when the enemy intercepted him just now, and he also knew that there were two Soviet planes monitoring him. However, he did not know that the Soviet planes had indeed fired warning machine guns just now, but the machine gun shells did not have tracer bullets!

He was very confident. The two planes had been accompanying him for such a long time and had not yet opened fire on him. They must have confirmed that this was a lost passenger plane! In that case, they would just keep getting lost!

After completing this mission, he will have enough salary to buy a piece of land in Hawaii and live there for the rest of his life.

Little did he know that this would be his last flight.

"Boom!" At this moment, suddenly, a huge roar came from outside.

Along with the roar, the engine fire alarm reporting light on the dashboard in front of the cabin flashed.

"Oops!" the driver shouted, "Engine, we lost engine number one!"

If he were standing outside at this moment, he would not have shouted, he would have definitely knelt down trembling.

With the explosion of the missile and the Boeing 747 being hit, the most famous incident of shooting down a Korean passenger plane during the Cold War occurred. This most mysterious air crash in the Cold War confrontation, later known as the 311 air crash, occurred. The inferences and investigations about the incident attracted the interest of countless experts, and countless papers were published.

As the most important person involved in the entire incident, Captain Osipovich was ordered to open fire and shoot down the invading large targets without any mistakes. The only mistake was that Captain Osipovich used the R-98 missile!

R-98, codenamed AA-3 "Anab" in the West, was equipped by the former Soviet Air Force in 1963. It was the Soviet Union's first medium-range air-to-air missile with interchangeable semi-active radar and infrared seeker, with a range of 26 kilometers.

(With the technology of the 1960s, a range of more than ten kilometers could almost be called a medium-range air-to-air missile.)

This missile adopts a canard aerodynamic shape layout, with 4 small cut-tip triangular control rudders installed at the rear of the warhead, 4 large cut-tip triangular wings installed at the rear of the missile body, and 1 roll stabilizer on each of the 4 wings' trailing edge. From the appearance, it seems that it pays more attention to maneuverability, although in fact this missile is prepared for NATO bombers.

The warhead of this missile weighs 40 kilograms. This is the Soviet Union's usual style. The warhead must be large! Even if the range is shorter, it doesn't matter! Only the Soviets can install a 40-kilogram warhead on a missile with a total weight of 260 kilograms.

Now, it is because of this huge warhead! If Captain Osipovich used the R-60 missile, at most he would damage the enemy's engine and force the enemy to make an emergency landing. But now, Captain Osipovich first used the R-98. When this missile caught up with the engine and exploded, the warhead not only damaged the engine, but also knocked off the half of the wing connected to the engine.

The wing was burning, an engine was lost, and half of the wing was lost. The aerodynamic performance of this Boeing 747 was completely destroyed in an instant. Under the action of lift, the fuselage began to roll towards the direction of the half wing at an incredible speed. At the same time, the nose of the plane pointed downward and began to fall.