F-84 shot up on March 10th, 1953

[Horst Weber]

Originally Posted by Alex Smart

Hi Horst,
You may be able to order the Air accident report or the Aircraft record card via this site www.aviationarchaeology.com
All the best, let us know how you get on.
Alex

Happy New Year, Alex and Michal !

In the meantime, I received three aviationarchaeology accident reports, concerning USAFE accidents in my area from the 1950's. They are tremendous good and in a high quality. It is easily a pleasure to read in them and find out, what really happened.

Unfortunately, the incident of 10th March, 1953, when 53rd FS, 36th FBW
F-86, piloted by 1st. Lt. Warren Brown was shot down by Jaroslaw Sramek, is not available. There is no trace to the s/n of the aircraft.

Does anyone has an idea, why USAFE aircraft, which were shot up in Cold War by Warsaw Pact airpower in Europe are not released in Serial/no. even all other facts are public like unit, squadron and name of the pilot.

Thank you very much !

Horst Weber

[Qui-Gon62]

Dear Horst,
as English is the language in this forum, I will stick to it. I have joined not too long ago and are interested in the same subject as you as in USAFE history in general.
The tail number of this particular Thunderjet is indeed still unknown. It could either be in the range of 49-21xx through 49-23xx as the 36th and 86th FBWs received 150 F-84Es from these production blocks in September 1950 under "Fox Able 3" or in the range 51-5xx through 51-6xx. A batch of FY 51 F-84Es was delivered in 1952 to compensate the high losses due to accidents. To make matters even more complicated, the 36th FBW operated a small number of ex-20 FBW F-84Gs in spring 1953 before converting to the F-86F from August (to the best of my knowledge). So, this is another possibility, if perhaps not very likely.
I have indexed many 1953 accident reports for Aviation Archeology including the relevant period (should be on their website soon). The shootdown is definitely not included in the accident reports from 10 March, but this is no exception as it was a combat loss, not an accident. All other combat losses (there were many in Korea) aren't included either. Although not answering the question, I hope this is helpful though.
Best wishes,
Gerhard

P.S. I would be interested in contacting you about the wing's quarterly records. Please drop me a note.

[Horst Weber]

Gerhard !

Thanks for the information. Indeed, I still have no idea, why this serial-number doesn`t show up in official documents, which are public-available, related to that incident.

Maybe some international standarts or diplomatic rules with an comfortable time-limit for the release could be the reason (99 years + 364 days e.g. ???). Perhaps, this mystery and the obvious backgrounds can be solved once.

Thanks again for your post and I'm going to contact you by PM.

Horst Weber