Data Describing Cause Of Cold War Aircraft Losses

[Robersabel]

I recently discovered conflicting information regarding Cold War aircraft losses. The DPMO Cold War Incident Report states (in part) loss may have been due in part to Typhoon Emma.

The site below states the following:


AMERICAN BATTLE MONUMENTS COMMISSION
XXXXXXXXX

Ajo, Arizona

Born

Captain, U.S. Air Force
Service Number AOxxxxxx
Killed in Action
Died September 10, 1956 in Korea
Captain xxxx was a crew member of a RB-50 Super Fortress reconnaissance aircraft with the U.S. Air Force. On September 10, 1956, while patrolling the airspace during the Korean truce, his aircraft was shot down. Captain Fees was awarded the Purple Heart and the National Defense Service Medal.



Require office identified to contact in order to obtain official reason for loss.

Robert
Robersabel@aol.com

[Norman Malayney]

"Dear Robert, According to William E. Burrows book, "By Any Means Necessary", 2001, ISBN 0-374-11747-0 on page 214 it states: "On September 10, 1956, barely two weeks after the loss of the Mercator, yet another RB-50G went down over the Sea of Japan with a regular crew of sixteen. All of them as well as the plane itself, vanished without a trace. Responsibility for the mishap was quickly assigned to God. "The aircraft was in the 6091st Reconnaissance Squadron at Yokota, Japan, and was flying a regular ferret mission in absolute radio silence as usual. It disappeared somewhere between western Honshu and Vladivostok, the electonric warfare fraternity's perennial favorite East Asian target. Given the fact it was on that mission, and therefore was much closer to the Soviet naval base than to Japan, it was almost certainly attacked and destroyed by MiGs. Air Force Security Service electronic intercepts, which included Soviet communication traffic that night, strongly suggest that the RB-50G was intercepted."Meanwhile Emma, the worst typhoon of the season, was winding down in the general area after causing heavy destruction and more than fifty deaths in Japan, Okinawa, South Korea, and the Philippines. At its worst, the storm was 600 miles across and had 155-mile-an-hour winds. When it became clear by 10:30 that night that the RB-50G was seriously overdue, and in fact would have run out of fuel an hour earlier, someone got the idea of using Emma as a cover story."Reporters in Tokyo were told by a representative of the Far East Air Forces that the missing RB-50 (not RB-50G which would have provided a morsel of real information to the cognoscenti) was a typhoon-hunting weather observation aircraft that was supposed to help predict Emma's path by flying into its center and dropping instruments to record wind velocity, barometric pressure, temperature, and other data. In response to a reporter's question, the Air Force spokeman discounted the idea that the plane might have been shot down."In reality, by the time the RB-50G left Yokota, Emma had shrunk to 80 miles across with 80 mph winds. Furthermore, its crew was given the customary weather briefing. They therefore knew where the storm was, had some idea of its severity, and unquestionably avoided it. Ordering an RB-50G into a storm like Emma would have been a career ender for the commanding officer who did it. Yet the men who disappeared that night have officially been credited, not with losing their lives under fire in defense of their country, but with being the pathetic victims of a storm they couldn't handle. This carried the clear implication they had dubious flying skills, whish was not true."I hope the above information answers your question? There is another book on post-war losses of USAF Elint aircraft with furhter information, but I cannot locate it at present. I have a 4,000 book library, a modest collection compared to others' I know having 7,000 and 14,000 book libraries.Norman Malayney

[James A Pratt III]

The Air Combat Information Group site may have some info for you they deal with post WW II air combat