ATTACK BY MIG ON AIRLINER

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27368, 5 June 1954, Page 7

ATTACK BY MIG ON AIRLINER

One Of Crew Killed; Two Injured

LONDON, June 3. A Communist MIG jet fighter fired on a Belgian Sabena Airline DC-3 over Austria today, killing the radio officer and wounding the captain and the engineer. The British co-pilot, Douglas Wilson, aged 32, took over the controls when the pilot was injured and made a safe belly landing at Graz, Austria. ■ The attack’took place not far from the Hungarian-Jugoslav border. Wilson said the MIG circled him thrJß times and peppered the cockpit wftn bullets. “Two cannon shells hit our aeroplane and burst inside it,” said Wilson.

It appeared that the MIG was trying to force them in the direction of Hungary. The wounded Belgian pilot, Captain Devrese, said the MIG came from Hungarian territory and was of Soviet nationality. Both Capain Devrese and the engineer are in the British hospital at Graz.

Captain Devrese is said to be seriously ill with two bullets in the right shoulder.

The aeroplane was one of a pool organised by Belgians and Jugoslavs to fly 1600 breeding pigs from Britain to Belgrade. The pigs—bought by a Jugoslav purchasing mission—are being transported by eight flights a week over a period of two to three weeks. An official statement by the British Embassy in Vienna said the airliner was fired on at a position estimated as near Maribor on the AustrianJugoslav frontier. The crew of another Sabena DC-3, flying 35 minutes behind, said they saw nothing of the attack. The Belgian Minister of Communications (Mr Edouard Anseele) announcedih Brussels tonight that he has ordered an inquiry into the shooting. The, Minister’s communique said: “The inquiry will permit us to establish- foie. Causes of the incident.” The radio operator who was killed was Joseph Caluwaerts, aged 42, a Belgian.