1957 United States Air Force incursion into Albanian airspace

1957 United States Air Force incursion into Albanian airspace
Part of The Cold War

The USAF Lockheed T-33 fighter jet at Gjirokastër
DateDecember 23, 1957
Location
Rinas, Albania
40°04′25″N 20°08′24″E / 40.0737°N 20.14013°E / 40.0737; 20.14013
Result
  • Aircraft seized
  • American pilot arrested but later released
Belligerents
Albania Albania  United States
Commanders and leaders
Albania Anastas Ngjela United States/ Howard J. Curran
Units involved
Air Force of the Albanian People's Army United States Air Force
Strength
2 MiG-15[1][2] 1 Lockheed T-33[2]
Casualties and losses
None 1 T-33 captured[3]

The 1957 United States Air Force incursion into Albanian airspace (Albanian: Incidentet e para ajrore), was a Cold War incident.[1][4][3]

On December 23, 1957, an American T-33 fighter jet violated Albanian airspace.[5] Two MiG-15 aircraft took off from Kuçova Air Base, piloted by Anastas Ngjela and Mahmut Hysa.[6][7]

The American fighter jet was surrounded and forced to land on the unfinished runway at Rinas Airport.[8][9] The plane was impounded and the American pilot Major Howard J. Curran was arrested.[10] Curran was released on January 11, 1958, while the plane was placed in the Gjirokastër castle museum. The T-33 air incident was just one of at least eight that occurred between Albania and foreign powers from 1948 to the late 1970s.[1]

  1. ^ a b c "Koha kur avionët e Enverit luftonin me botën". Konica.al. November 24, 2019. Retrieved December 3, 2022.
  2. ^ a b van Gerven Oei 2015, p. 180.
  3. ^ a b ""Në vitin 1957, një pilot i NATO-s, me gradën e majorit, uli avionin e tij "T-33" në aeroportin e Rinasit"/ Dëshmia". Memorie.al (in Albanian). February 13, 2020. Retrieved December 3, 2022.
  4. ^ "A 'Dead' Flier Safe at Home". Life. September 4, 1970.
  5. ^ Spektër (in Albanian). 2001. p. 19.
  6. ^ van Gerven Oei, Vincent W. J. (2015). Workers Leaving the Studio. Looking Away from Socialist Realism. Punctum Books. ISBN 978-0-692-48041-0. OCLC 945783129.
  7. ^ zgjohushqiptar.info (January 25, 2019). "Koha kur avionët e Enverit luftonin me botën, ndersa sot avion shqiptarë …një ëndërr". Zgjohu Shqiptar. Retrieved December 3, 2022.
  8. ^ Regnery, Alfred S. (2019). Unlikely pilgrim : a journey into history and faith. New York, NY. ISBN 978-0-8253-0800-0. OCLC 1082977970.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  9. ^ Gibler, Douglas M. (2018). International Conflicts, 1816-2010: Militarized Interstate Dispute Narratives. Lanham, Maryland. ISBN 978-1-4422-7558-4. OCLC 1030585387.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  10. ^ Keesing's Contemporary Archives. University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign: Keesing's Limited. 1957. p. 15984.