F-86 vs MiG 15, the claims...

[Six Nifty .50s]

Originally Posted by Jim Oxley

One of the stats mentioned in Jackson's Appendices is a break down of F-86 losses.

Operational Losses:
Air Combat - 78
Other causes - 61
Total - 139

Cause of loss data for combat missions has been revised by the USAF several times. More than 100 of the total Sabre losses have now been attributed to MiGs. The increase is not definitive however, and is largely based on guesswork because there was no eyewitness for many individual losses. Originally the number of air-to-air combat losses was estimated at 58 and that was mainly drawn from reports of USAF pilots who personally saw another Sabre attacked or shot down by MiGs, or overheard radio distress calls from F-86 pilots under attack by MiGs.

Originally Posted by Jim Oxley

Sadly just what the 'other causes' nor 'non-operational' losses are were not specified.

Accidents of all types and ground fire, for starters. By the way, I don't think that Robert Jackson is a reliable historian. I have read several of his books and found his research to be consistently sloppy, outdated, and misleading.