Catalina affair

Flight 27[1]
Tp 79 Hugin at F 8 Barkarby in 1951
Incident
Date13 June 1952
SummaryShot down
SiteEast of Gotska Sandön
58°23′31″N 20°17′28″E / 58.39194°N 20.29111°E / 58.39194; 20.29111[2]
Aircraft
Aircraft typeDC-3A-360 Skytrain
Aircraft nameHugin[3][4]
OperatorSwedish Air Force
Flight originStockholm Bromma Airport
Stockholm, Sweden
DestinationStockholm Bromma Airport
Passengers0
Crew8
Fatalities8
Survivors0
The Catalina shot down by Soviet forces while searching for the missing Hugin
Incident
Date16 June 1952
SummaryShot down
SiteEast of Gotska Sandön
Aircraft
Aircraft typePBY-5 Catalina
OperatorSwedish Air Force
Flight originF 2 Hägernäs[5]
near Stockholm, Sweden
DestinationF 2 Hägernäs[6]
Passengers0
Crew7
Fatalities0

The Catalina affair (Swedish: Catalinaaffären) was a military confrontation and Cold War-era diplomatic crisis in June 1952, in which Soviet Air Force fighter jets shot down two Swedish aircraft over international waters in the Baltic Sea.

The first aircraft to be shot down was an unarmed Swedish Air Force Tp 79, a derivative of the Douglas DC-3, carrying out radio and radar signals intelligence-gathering for the National Defence Radio Establishment (Försvarets radioanstalt, FRA). None of the crew of eight survived.

The second aircraft to be shot down was a Swedish Air Force Tp 47, a Catalina flying boat, involved in the search and rescue operation for the missing DC-3. The Catalina's crew of seven were saved.

The Soviet Union publicly denied involvement until its dissolution in 1991. Both aircraft were located in 2003; the DC-3 was salvaged.

  1. ^ Magnusson, p. 10
  2. ^ Magnusson 2007, p. 9
  3. ^ Magnusson 2007, p. 133, p. 202
  4. ^ The sister aircraft 79002 was called Munin. Magnusson 2007, p. 47
  5. ^ Magnusson 2007, p. 33.
  6. ^ Assumed to be same as origin.